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Bonfire processions - a Sussex thing?



Wozza

Custom title
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
24,375
Minteh Wonderland
Just discussing bonfire processions in November.

I had no idea it's a Sussex thing (with a bit in Surrey and Kent).

Why's that then?
 




Spencer Vignes

Active member
Oct 4, 2012
168
No idea why....but you're absolutely right. I grew up in Sussex, left aged 19 and have since lived all over the place since including the Thames Valley, Cornwall, Yorkshire and South Wales (where I am now). And none of them do Bonfire Night like Sussex. True, some of the villages along the Surrey/Kent borders get well and truly into the spirit (Brockham springs to mind), but it really is just along the fringes. More than any other time of the year, it's when I truly miss living in Sussex.
 


Springal

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2005
24,785
GOSBTS
It's an East sussex thing I think. I have a customer in Uckfield and basically throughout October and November there seems to be weird bonfire processions every weekend in places I've never heard of. Bloody charlatans
 


atomised

Well-known member
Mar 21, 2013
5,170
It's an East sussex thing I think. I have a customer in Uckfield and basically throughout October and November there seems to be weird bonfire processions every weekend in places I've never heard of. Bloody charlatans

They start the first week in September in Uckfield oddly enough
 






beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,019
i think the memory around the Lewes martyrs made it big thing in Lewes and it spread through the nearby villages. villages note, there's few towns that bother, Battle and Crowbrough? not many.
 


Monkey Man

Your support is not that great
Jan 30, 2005
3,224
Neither here nor there
i think the memory around the Lewes martyrs made it big thing in Lewes and it spread through the nearby villages. villages note, there's few towns that bother, Battle and Crowbrough? not many.

Seaford and Eastbourne have reformed their bonfire societies in recent years.

The reason the bonfire season is so drawn out in Sussex is that local societies all want to participate in the Lewes event, on the 5th, so they organise their own processions and displays to take place on other dates.
 










ManOfSussex

We wunt be druv
Apr 11, 2016
15,173
Rape of Hastings, Sussex
i think the memory around the Lewes martyrs made it big thing in Lewes and it spread through the nearby villages. villages note, there's few towns that bother, Battle and Crowbrough? not many.

Hastings has a big one. Bonfire on the beach, fireworks from West Hill, procession with all the societies etc

It's always done on the nearest Saturday to the anniversary of the Battle - which is 950 years tomorrow.
 






beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,019
Hastings has a big one. Bonfire on the beach, fireworks from West Hill, procession with all the societies etc

It's always done on the nearest Saturday to the anniversary of the Battle - which is 950 years tomorrow.

i remember going to a big arse fire and display there, dont remember any procession. this is 15 odd years ago mind, ive not got back into it since returning from London
 


hastings

Member
Jan 15, 2010
486
Suffolk
Just discussing bonfire processions in November.

I had no idea it's a Sussex thing (with a bit in Surrey and Kent).

Why's that then?

We used to have one in the sleepy little town I lived and grew up in, in Suffolk but never appreciated that we were the odd ones up here until you point it out
 




Wrong-Direction

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2013
13,638
I'll be marching in Lewes 🎆🎇

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk
 




ManOfSussex

We wunt be druv
Apr 11, 2016
15,173
Rape of Hastings, Sussex
i remember going to a big arse fire and display there, dont remember any procession. this is 15 odd years ago mind, ive not got back into it since returning from London

It would be far bigger now than it was 15 years ago. They were bonfire society people selling official programmes for £1, all proceeds going to charity, last Saturday in the town centre.
 






Boys 9d

Well-known member
Jan 3, 2012
1,855
Lancing
Unfortunately some of the old Bonfire Societies are no more. I can remember as a child and early teenager watching the procession through Shoreham with the Bonfire and a Fun Fair taking place on what is now Adur Recreation Ground which at that time was part recreation ground and part town refuse tip. I also remember going to see the Beeding & Bramber celebrations.
 


Nah. The pagans do their bonfirey thing out in the far east of Sussex (the other side of Hailsham). West of that, it's a Christian (protestant) thing.


Haven't been to Lewes bonfire for years but recommend it perhaps as a "bucket list" entry! Best ever version I have heard of "Sussex by the Sea" was by the Kohima Band (proper full on military marching band) performed outside Lewes Crown Court at well after midnight one Bonfire night!. Possible the same day I watched a "Bonfire Boy" casually toss a "rookie" onto the balcony of the "White Hart" which provoked an interesting reaction from the "Toffs" thereon when it detonated!
 


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