It’s a wonderful thing to belong to Sussex Bonfire. I mean, it is really and truly a wonderful thing. Members of the Sussex Bonfire Societies are pretty special people. It takes a certain quality of character to turn out each winter to cut and hand-make medieval style bonfire torches, trimmed hazel branches, wound in hessian and later dipped in pitch. These torches must be able to burn for 30 minutes or more. Hastings Borough Bonfire Society made more than 2000 torches for their event.
Of course, for a long time bonfire in Sussex hasn’t been confined to November 5. Throughout Sussex from September to December it’s possible to attend many bonfire events in towns or villages. There are 49 bonfire societies in Sussex and due to peculiarities of this year’s calendar, there were no other events clashing with October 14, the Saturday closest to the anniversary of the 1066 Battle of Hastings. All the Sussex societies had accepted the invitation to Hastings. The weather was perfect and the anticipation was high.
The procession started at the traffic lights opposite the pier. The opening ceremony being a declaration by the town crier of the independence of the America Ground. There is an interesting history to this, which refers to a slice of buildings behind the current Debenhams store.
The procession reached far back along the sea front towards St Leonards. Members of the 49 bonfire societies that were present numbered approximately 1000 strong. It was huge, and with torches all ablaze an awe-inspiring sight. Every society is represented in their own distinctive style of costume. The sight of them all with blazing torches was breath taking. Though it goes back several hundred years, the dressing-up seems to have sprung more from a need for disguise than a desire for group identity. In the early days of the processions, revellers would black their faces so as not to be recognised by neighbours or employers. As well as being a night of mischief, it was a night for settling old scores. Farm property was stolen, houses damaged; in Rye, it was not uncommon for the boat of an unpopular fisherman to be dragged out of the boatyard and burned!
Throughout the history of bonfire, rules and legislation have done their best to stop it or damage the glory of the tradition. At the moment it’s not possible to allow boom bins in the procession – the empty oil drums dragged along in which rookies (rook scarers) are let off at salient points to make a loud bang and thrill and inspire. This means that the procession is eerily quiet in places except for individual shouting. But negotiations with the insurance companies continue. Hopefully boom bins will return. Any lack of bangs and flashes in the procession was more than compensated for when, after the seven kilometre walk, we all arrived on the beach and the bonfire was lit. The firework display, by Renegade Fireworks, was marvellous to behold and exciting and impressive. The 40,000 people in the crowd showed their appreciation loudly. The display seemed to go on for ages and nobody wanted it to end.
It was an amazing night. Roll on November 11 when we have it at Rye. Rye Bonfire Society may be smaller in quantity but the quality is the same and it’s just as wonderful.
Photos: Maggs Ivatts
It is a truly spectacular event, the very essence of primordial celebration.