Tag: Bloater Boat

Bonfire Celebrations in Bygone Years

What were those Bonfire Nights in Rye of more than sixty years ago really like?

So many stories are passed down by those senior citizens who were there. They tell of amazing burning boats being carted around the town, of fireworks being thrown in the streets and of famous film stars and personalities representing Rye Fawkes. At least thirty tableau every year, and four or five marching bands. There were bloaters cooked on the Bloater Boat and Dances at the Monastery. Continue reading Bonfire Celebrations in Bygone Years

Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

 

Don’t Miss this Year’s Great Event

Rye’s Bonfire celebrations could be older than Guy Fawkes himself. Some say that celebrations with bonfires in Rye were first held to commemorate the young men of the town’s retaliatory raid against the French in 1378 when they returned to wreak revenge, burning and pillaging and snatching back the Church Bells which had been stolen the year before.

Descriptions of the 1840 to 1889 Rye Fawkes Celebrations when burning boats were dragged around the town, seems a re-enactment of the 1378 raid when Continue reading Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

Original Dragon of Rye

We are told that the history of ‘Bonfire’ in Rye goes back BEFORE the time of Guy Fawkes. Legend has it that the burning boat ceremony was first held in the town shortly after the men of Rye and Winchelsea raided the French town at St. Peter’s Port and retrieved the church bells that had been stolen in the French raid of the previous year. In the course of their revengeful rape and pillage they also pulled French boats out of the water and paraded them blazing through the streets. This event is still remembered in the traditional dragging of a burning boat in the Guy Fawkes procession. Continue reading Original Dragon of Rye