Hellfire preacher takes on Lewes Bonfire Night 'debauchery'

Greetings to my friends in Lewes, who are no doubt putting the final touches to their tar barrels and highwaymen's hats.

The annual anti-Popery shenanigans have been banned at intervals over the past 200 years, but still seem to be going from strength to strength, fuelled by quantities of the local brew.

In 1879, the newly appointed Baptist minister of Lewes "spent several hours in the streets observing the various aspects of the annual riot". He was not amused, and damned "the carnival of sin" from his pulpit the following Sunday.

The local press retaliated "in the style of the men of Sodom", and he was insulted in the streets and sent threatening letters in the post. Over the next few years fireworks were thrown at his house and his windows broken.

In 1884, he finally wrote to The Times, prompted by a tiff that had broken out in the letters columns about whether the festival should be banned, yet again.

His description of the scenes in the streets could just about be written today:

Photograph © Andrew Dunn, 5 November 2005.
Website: http://www.andrewdunnphoto.com/

Comments

[Harley Seacole]

I love Lewes bonfire, I hope we all stay strong enough and are able ensure that our children can enjoy it as we do, come on Newick, come on Blackboys, come on Cliffe, what are we going to do? BURN HIM!

[John Rennie]

We haven't changed that much have we. The Minister's comment about the 'unruliness and indifference to intellectual development among the young men' rings a lot of bells.

[KathrynS]

19th century 'chavs'?....but where oh where were the ASBO's and the ankle tags?

[Desmond Persaud]

Thank goodness that nowadays such outrageous expressions of mindless anti-Catholic bigotry are now confined to the opinion pages of The Guardian.

[Tony]

It was Brown's fault back then too, if you believe some people!

[Mike A]

A Buddhist, a Roman Catholic, an agnostic, a Protestant, and a Jew went to Lewes...

Not the start of a joke but the religious mix of the group I went with. We had a whale of a time and we all took it in the spirit in which it is intended; it is all done with the tongue firmly inserted in the cheek. There is not a whiff of racial or religious intolerance: German marching bands and Gurkha bands have been regally received in previous years.

Yes there are some unsavoury characters in attendance but it is 99.9% decent people having a thoroughly innocent time. My only complaint is that not enough of those attendees put any money in the charity collections that abound.

"just about be written today"? My rear-end.