Landlord’s secret savings felt the heat when inn burned

Finding out that a fire that destroyed Sudbury’s Rose and Crown was the feature of a new book sent the town’s ex-mayor, John Sayers, rummaging through his souvenirs.

John’s father gave him a block of melted silver coins found in the rubble after the 1922 fire.

They were said to have been stored in the cellar ... allegedly for the purposes of tax avoidance.

“After the fire, my uncle, Bill Major, was engaged to remove the rubble with horse and tumbrel,” said John. “Local children discovered coins melted by the fire.

“My father, Vic, gave me a block of heat-welded florins which I have kept ever since as a souvenir.”

The book, Inns to Ashes by Peter Thorogood, is on sale to raise money for the upkeep of Sudbury’s water meadows.