In 1583, on a cold winter’s night, a great fire swept through the town of Nantwich in the north-west of England. As the inhabitants of the town tried to put out the fire, the residents of the Bear Inn released bears from the Inn out into the streets—presumably because bears were being kept there for the night, and they were too precious and expensive to leave and let perish in the fire.
We made an animated film about this peculiar historical event, in which we asked questions about why the bears would have been at the Bear Inn in the first place, and why people went so far as to blame them for starting the fire!
It seems that it’s not just us who are interested in the bears of the Great Fire of Nantwich. In Autumn 2022 the Box Office Bears project was contacted by the production team for Channel 5’s programme ‘No Place Like Home’. The programme uncovers the cultural histories of the hometowns of celebrities across the UK. The production team were working with actor and author Ben Miller to explore his hometown of Nantwich, and they had stumbled across the film we had made about the Great Fire.
Liam from the Box Office Bears team went to speak with Ben Miller about this event, and to explain why there were bears in Nantwich at the time. It so happens that in the Early Modern period bears travelled around the country to fight in town squares and baiting arenas, like the one called Paris Gardens on Bankside in London. Ben was quite surprised to hear that there were once bears running through the streets of his hometown, so we also talked about what Nantwich would have been like at the time as a jewel in the North, and how it was rebuilt and regenerated after the fire.
The show will air on Channel 5 on Wednesday 18 January 2023 at 9pm. It will also be available to watch on catchup on the Channel 5 website. We’d love to hear what you think about the show!
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