'THE jewel of Alcester' - the 400-year-old town hall - was just minutes away from becoming the latest building to fall victim to a suspected arson attack.

Massive amounts of rubbish bags stacked up outside the hall were set alight on Tuesday - but luckily staff and customers at the Hollybush Pub spotted the danger.

They rushed outside with fire extinguishers and tried to douse the flames.

Cars were parked close to where the fire had been started and townsfolk were even line-dancing inside the Henley Street hall, unaware of the danger as the drama unfolded at about 9.30pm.

Alcester Town Hall secretary David Young said: "Rubbish was piled up outside on Tuesday night ready for the Wednesday morning collection.

"People from Butter Street, as well as others, leave rubbish there so in the end there was a huge pile - about 40 bags.

"People in the Hollybush noticed it and staff and customers went armed with extinguishers to douse the flames.

"They kept it under control until the fire service turned up. There is black up the wall but no serious damage."

Mr Young added: "It's definitely time something was done about these fires."

The town hall management committee has already written to the Hollybush staff giving them their 'sincere thanks' in 'helping them avoid what might have been a very tragic event for the town'.

The town hall, built in 1641, is just the latest of a spate of incidents around the town after the old football and Guide huts at the back of Gas House Lane and the Scout hut behind the Greig Centre were torched earlier this year.

Teej Deffley, manager of the Hollybush, said: "One of our bar maids, Laura Bates, was working behind the bar and saw some light coming from the window and when she looked more closely, saw that it was flames.

"She and a couple of other staff and one of our locals grabbed the nearest fire extinguishers and ran out.

"By this time I had called the fire brigade and went back in and took around the hose before the services turned up.

"The danger was Laura's car, which was backing on to where the fire had started, so it could have been much worse - it was a bit of a panic."