Lewes Bonfires 1908, 1909 & 1910

by Annette Philly Verrell

Historian Vol 7 No 6 September 1987

Remember Remember the fifth of November.

I should like to remember the experiences of my first Bonfire Night. I had heard so much about it and Lewes is really the only place throughout Great Britain where the Gunpowder Plot and its meaning is told and illustrated year by year not only by burning torches and coloured fires being carried through the streets and by the burning of an enormous effigy of Guy Fawkes and Pope Paul, but there is always a Bonfire Service held the Sunday before in the Jireh Chapel, which is packed with loyal worshippers of the Catholic faith.

It is put very clearly to us all, the necessity of keeping Roman Catholics from getting a firm hold of our country and we are told that the Bonfire has been kept up year by year to commemorate the landing of William of Orange by a truly patriotic people. An enthusiasm which is handed down from father to son and worked at with a zeal worthy of the cause. The effigies are really wonderful when one remembers they are chiefly composed of fire-works and coloured lights and are made by members of the Bonfire Society who labour far into the hours of the night after their actual day's work is done. I've been told it is very hard work indeed and is begun some months before the glorious "Fifth" comes.

Both years I have seen it the weather has been exceptionally fine and the first year all went well but last year, 1909, a man named Tom Gering was seriously burnt and it ended in death two days later. He was a torch-bearer and after supplying the procession with torches at headquarters (the Elephant and Castle, for we have followed the Commercial Square Society) he was following in the rear with a bundle of torches in his arms and had on a striped woollen jersey which, of course, was saturated with paraffin and it is said that a man with a lighted torch collided with him and in a second the man was enveloped in flames. He was nearly mad with fright and pain but with all speed was driven off to the Victoria Hospital, where two days later he died, more from the severe shock than the actual burns. Day by day the Bonfire Boys made enquiries and a substantial relief fund was started by them for the widow and six children the youngest then only three days old. It met with a ready response and is now bringing the widow in fifteen shillings a week until her youngest child is fourteen besides living rent free. So they have done what they could.

I started with the idea of describing the pleasant time Nelly and I had together that night but find I have wandered from my purpose in trying to give an impression of what the Bonfire was really intended to remind us of. Also the poor man's story which I have told in a few words, because everyone was impressed by it and also his is the first life lost in Bonfire Celebration although it is carried out very much quieter now than it has ever been. Now they light the Bonfire and burn the effigies in an open field, whereas in years gone by it was lit in front of the Town Hall and at the principal street corners. The first procession passed here about six, there were men in every uniform of the army they could get, there were merry sailors, safer perhaps on land than sea. There were gorgeous princes of every tribe one could think of, resplendent in flying head-dress and a plentiful supply of jewels, each one carrying a lighted torch. Girls dressed in fancy costume to represent all nations and some of the dresses worn by both men and girls were well worth seeing and as anyone could see had been well thought out.

Nelly and I were told to get supper in, which was hot, at seven o'clock and when they had finished and we had cleared away and washed up, and had prepared another supper for when the family and friends returned and had tidied all the bedrooms, we would then be at liberty to go out and enjoy the sights and they hoped we should get off early! We went just before nine wondering how much we had missed while we quickly made our way towards the Cliffe where we joined the procession, when, to our great delight we learnt that the lighted tar-barrel had not yet been thrown over the bridge. So we saw that, then during the interval while the Bonfire Boys were taking refreshments, we walked up St Ann's where we met two young men who had come in from Newhaven. They were pleasant company and good protectors, having on stronger boots than we had, to trample out the fragments of fire before it set light to our skirts.

The fire that year was along Offham Road in a large field and the crowds standing all along the banks watching the sight showed the interest taken by all, in Fifth Celebration. We got through nearer the fire to hear the Bonfire prayers being read and to see the flames consume the mighty effigy of Guy Fawkes first, afterwards that of Pope Paul. Then the splendid tableau. After this the Procession formed again and Nelly and I with our 'young gallants' followed. These fellows purposely lost their train, because if they had caught it, they would have missed the Bonfire as their train went at 11:10. So we made our way back along Offham Road behind a very merry party of young men, all dressed in farmers' smocks and singing lustily 'Sussex by the Sea' it was rather good too. My escort and Nelly's both came home with us although they had got to walk back to Newhaven that night, or rather, morning. We enquired of them their names and gave them ours and we both received letters telling us of the very pleasant evening they had spent and the moonlight walk they had home, no doubt, like us, talking over the events of the evening. I remember they signed themselves 'Your Bonfire Chum'.

Last year we did not find the Fifth quite so exciting although we both got out a little earlier but we met Nelly's Aunt who had never seen it before and she came with us. I fancy she was a trifle nervous of the lavish display of fire, so of course we did not take her too far into it. But we stood quite close to the cart, from which the Archbishop (Fatty Lloyd) read the Bonfire Prayers, attended by his staff of clergy, all of whom we knew, and the Commander-in-Chief (Harry Cruse) a friend of ours. We had some fun there. Just after the Archbishop had denounced Pope Paul and had shouted "what shall we do with him Boys?" and they had shouted "Burn him! Burn him!" The tableau was seen to be alight, fired by some mischievous hand, before its turn. So they shouted "save the Pope, save the Pope", not as a sign that they had in any way relented their decision but because the tableau, once started, had to blaze away and a wonderful sight it was too.

I have seen 'set pieces' of fireworks at the Crystal Palace, but nothing like this! During the destruction, one could see the heads of Guy Fawkes and his confederates looking over the top and falling one by one, thus fulfilling the title of the structure 'Bold treason's fate is Tower Gate'. Then when the Pope was showing what good stuff he was made of, for burning, the crowd sang 'Rule Britannia' and afterwards, when all was destroyed, we sang 'God save our King'. Then we followed the procession until they dispersed and we returned once again to Hill Lodge earlier than the year before, and cleared away the supper and retired to bed about midnight.

This account was found by Mrs Kate Washer in an old notebook after the death of her mother Annette Pettitt nee Verrell. Annette left school aged twelve and became a parlourmaid at Hill Lodge, St Ann's Hill, Lewes.

Historian Vol 7 No 6 September 1987