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Bonfire processions - a Sussex thing?
- Thread starter Wozza
- Start date
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.
They start the first week in September in Uckfield oddly enough
pearl
Well-known member
pagans
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,300
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
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.
Lord Bracknell
On fire
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.
pearl
Well-known member
oh, with the pirates and smugglers
ManOfSussex
We wunt be druv
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.
pearl
Well-known member
beorhthelm
A. Virgo, Football Genius
- Jul 21, 2003
- 35,300
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
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
- 13,416
I'll be marching in Lewes 
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Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!
Primary data is fact
The residents of Jarandina in Extremadura do a real professional job of this sort of thing at this time of year. Escobazos before Lewes every time.
http://turismoextremadura.com/viajar/turismo/en/explora/Los-Escobazos/
http://turismoextremadura.com/viajar/turismo/en/explora/Los-Escobazos/
ManOfSussex
We wunt be druv
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.
robinsonsgrin
Well-known member
LA procession and fireworks are the last saturday in october. always a good night.
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.
Norman Potting
Well-known member
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!