Sussex Bonfire Societies
Whereas Guy Fawkes night in most parts of Great Britain is traditionally commemorated at large public fireworks displays or small family bonfires, towns in Sussex and Kent hold huge gala events with fires, processions and festivals.
From the mid-18th century Guy Fawkes night celebrations began to take on an entirely different meaning as a rallying point to protest against authority.
Later many conscripted men returning from the Napoleonic Wars faced real hardship and added to this feeling of social injustice, forming themselves into gangs based around sea ports where they had connections and could operate with relative impunity.
Additionally the Sailor suit was common dress for working-class people at the time because of its ready availability at ports and as counter-fashion for the working class.
The radicals like Tom Paine began to form successful campaigns for political reform such as the Chartists and adopted lobbying and peaceful demonstration tactics and rejected those who continued with the street riots.
It was from this point that Guy Fawkes night became the special and local 'Bonfire' in Lewes as it adopted the right to have a bonfire and celebrate under the Observance of 5th November Act 1605.
From 1832 blazing tar barrels were rolled down the narrow streets of the commercial and wealthy centre of Lewes with timber buildings on either side, openly threatening life and property of the ruling classes.
The protests continued and in 1846 the local magistrate was knocked unconscious in a confrontation with Bonfire Boys as he emerged from his house to warn them of arrest.
In "Observations on the Doings in Lewes of the 5th November 1846", printed anonymously in the Sussex Weekly Advertiser, called for the working class to be oppressed and the Bonfire Boys locked-up.
New Bonfire Societies were formed where none existed and with an intensity not seen for a hundred years on numerous nights East Sussex burned with outrage with signs of No Popery Here.
It was a phrase from history which had re-emerged, and whereas some local to Lewes may well have been in the Protestant association movement there is no evidence that the Bonfire Societies were involved, indeed they weren't created until a long time after.
The Mayfield bonfire celebrations commemorate four Protestant martyrs that were burnt to death in the village, on a site opposite the current Colkins Mill Church in Station Road, on 24 September 1556.
The society has its roots in the celebrations that were held in East Hoathly on 11 November 1918 following the signing of the Armistice that brought the First World War to an end.
Carnival societies generally hold more family-oriented evenings where people turn out to have fun and make merry with music and laughter.
Bonfire Societies, on the other hand, hold events that are often less family-oriented; typically featuring more drinking and debauchment with small fireworks (e.g. 'rookies' aka rook scarers) being liberally used by participants in the torchlit procession.
