Its that time of year again. The Bonfire Boys Flag flies over The Landgate and preparations are being made for the annual invasion of the streets of Rye by pirates, witches, Kings and Queens, skeletons, wenches, Cavaliers and Roundheads. The Bonfire Societies are almost exclusively from East Sussex and have a history that goes back even before the fateful night that Guy Fawkes and his cronies attempted to blow up Parliament. Continue reading Bonfire Magic
Tag: Burning Boat
Rye 1947
Have Health & Regulations Gone Too Far?
By Jim Hollands
The remarkable picture, of Gasson’s War ravaged building at the western end of Cinque Ports Street, was taken just after World War Two. Closer inspection reveals a wartime National Fire Service notice pointing the way to Rye Fire Station. Continue reading Rye 1947
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
Bonfire Extravaganza
They came in their thousands to town for one of the best Rye Fawkes Celebrations ever. Flaming torches lit the streets and a burning boat, the emblem of the Rye Bonfire Society, was dragged around the town as has happened for years immemorial. Continue reading Bonfire Extravaganza
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