On 8 September 1727, a visiting puppet show in a Burwell barn, on what is now Cuckolds Row, near the centre of the village was filled with onlookers from Burwell and nearby, the doors were nailed shut to stop further people getting in, a simple act that led to tragedy. One of the excluded sat with a candle lantern and peered in to watch, but accidentally knocked the lantern into the barn, setting fire to the hay within. With no way to escape, 78 people (51 of them children) perished in the ensuing blaze.