There were riots and fighting, and restrictions were clamped down on the celebrators, their locations moved to Wallands Park, at that time fields, not the suburb it is today.

The cult of the Sussex martyrs was instigated at a time of the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England, bolstered by an increase in the Irish Catholic population, as well as the high-profile conversion to Catholicism of members of the Oxford movement, including Cardinal Newman and former Archdeacon of Chichester, Henry Edward Manning.

In the mid 19th century the practice of burning an effigy of Pope Paul V at the Lewes Bonfire celebrations began.

"[8] In 1893 William Richardson, rector of the Southover district of Lewes, held sermons on the Sunday before 5 November warning about the perils of Catholicism.

[12] In 1981 Ian Paisley visited Lewes on Bonfire Night and tried to fan the flames of conflict by handing out anti-Catholic pamphlets.

[13] Today, anti-Catholic attitudes are rare and the militant Calvinism that continues in Northern Ireland is all but extinct in Lewes.

[16] In 2017 the Lewes Borough Bonfire Society agreed to end the tradition of blackface and wearing skulls and horns as part of its Zulu costumes.

In addition, each of the six main local societies creates a topical "tableau"(a large three-dimensional model packed with fireworks), and the Cliffe and Southover societies display on pikes the heads (also in effigy) of its current "Enemies of Bonfire", who range from nationally reviled figures to local officials who have attempted to place restrictions on the event.

[20] In 2014 police investigated complaints about plans to burn two effigies of Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, and one model was subsequently withdrawn from the event.

In recent years, railway stations at Lewes, Falmer, Glynde and Southease have had planned closures for the duration of the event due to foreseeable overcrowding.

After several processions, including acts of Remembrance for the war dead, each society marches to its own fire site on the edge of the town, where there is a large bonfire and firework display, and effigies are burned.

[26] Currently the only society to march under a "No Popery" banner and to continue in the tradition to "burn" (more accurately explode with fireworks)[27] an effigy of Pope Paul V at Bonfire.

In 1863 the famous Monster Iron Key of the Ancient Borough of Lewes weighing nearly a quarter hundredweight (over 12 kilos) was carried in the procession for the first time.

The same key is still carried today in the Borough's processions and is a symbol that on 5 November the 'Borough Boys' are given the freedom of the streets of Lewes.

Located on Southover High Street, the local church is St. John the Baptist's, where there is a war memorial, and the headquarters is The Swan Inn.

Their guernseys are red and black and their pioneers are monks (representing the remains of the Priory of St. Pancras nearby) and buccaneers.

[32] Waterloo was reformed in 1954[33] and represents the area just to the east of the main Commercial Square part (there is a fair bit of overlap between the two) based on Market Street, a quarter of Lewes with little population as it was heavily destroyed by the local planning council to make way for roads.