'Summerland inquest was an injustice I can't let go'

The granddaughter of one of the people killed in the Summerland fire disaster on the Isle of Man has said the original inquest verdict was "an injustice" that she "cannot let go".

About 3,000 people were inside the entertainment complex on Douglas Promenade on the evening of 2 August 1973 when tragedy unfolded.

Started by three boys setting fire to a kiosk outside, the spread of the fire through the building was rapid and had devastating consequences.

Fifty people lost their lives, many of them holidaymakers, and scores more were injured. An inquest held in 1974 ruled the deaths were misadventure.

Jane Stevenson's grandmother Anne Barber, known as Nancy, was killed alongside her friend Elsie Stevens while on holiday on the island.

She said that, as a child of seven at the time, she "really knew little about it" when her father, David Barber, travelled to the island from their home in Halifax to find out his mother's fate.

"My father shut down, didn't talk about it," she said. "All we knew is that granny had died in Summerland on the Isle of Man. We knew little else for 50 years."

That was something that changed, she said, when she visited the island to mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster and "found out a little bit more".

That led to her joining the Justice for Summerland group, made up of survivors of the disaster and family members of those who died.

It is spearheading a campaign for fresh inquests.

It was at that point, she said, that her father "opened up a lot more".

"I think it was cathartic for him to start bringing out the memories, and I learned so much more from him too about what happened when he came over here."

Jane said she learned he had travelled back to the island in 1974 for the inquest but had been "devastated and angry about the result of misadventure".

As the campaign went on, she kept him updated, and while "he found it difficult to listen... by then he wanted to hear it".

"The sad thing is we lost him just over two weeks ago and he will now never know whatever the outcome is.

"But at least he knew we were doing something and that meant the world to him," Jane added.

Jackie Hallam, who leads the group, was 13 and on holiday from Huddersfield when she became caught up in the disaster.

She managed to escape but suffered severe burns. Her mother Lorna Bryson Norton and friend Jane Tallon – who was also 13 – were both killed.

She said it was "extremely important" to those in the group to get a new inquest, and in particular to have a new verdict.

"The connotation of misadventure is a negative one", she said, adding it suggested "that risks were taken".

"We went into a building to use it for its intended purpose. That is all."

The group began to come together about four years ago, around the time of the 49th anniversary of the fire.

"That was the first time that I was able to face the horrors of Summerland, and to be able to move forward with it," she said.

"I started reaching out to other people, trying to locate other people that had been involved in this disaster."

She said while it "really doesn't get any easier" to revisit the events of the evening, the campaign was "too important to let go".

"If we let it go, we're accepting what happened... and we don't accept that. And we need to see this through to the bitter end."

The group's appeal against last year's refusal by the island's Attorney General to order fresh inquests was heard in the Isle of Man courts this week.

The island's First Deemster Andrew Corlett reserved judgement in the case, and will hand down a written ruling at a later date.

Closing the hearing on Thursday, the deemster said the disaster was "a matter which is very upsetting to a lot of people and to the Isle of Man as a whole".

Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.