Newick Bonfire Society – A Brief History
by Terry Voice (2026)
Newick Bonfire Society exists to stage traditional Sussex celebrations commemorating the failure of The Gunpowder Plot of 1605: A custom observed in our village over many years.
Local historian Tony Turk has discovered numerous press reports describing Newick Bonfire Night over the past two centuries, including the following milestones:
13 November 1828: The earliest known record of Newick Bonfire Night appears in ‘The Brighton Gazette’:
“At Newick on the 5th November, there was a blazing bon-fire, around which the inhabitants, who had with few exceptions contributed to its formation, were harmlessly engaged in their … recreation, when they were suddenly disturbed by the cracking of whips, and in rushed among the crowd an officious tall gentleman, living about a quarter of a mile from the spot. He said that the fire was dangerous to his premises, and threatened he would put a stop to the dangerous foolery. The next day a summons was delivered to two little boys, between seven and nine years old, for throwing squibs at a tall, bony, masculine fellow, in the employ of the said old gentleman; they were brought before the Lewes Bench, and fined for the gross offence of firing blue candle on an open plain.”
11 November 1854: A more detailed Sussex Express report describes a torchlit procession leaving the Bull Inn featuring disguised armed foot guards escorting an effigy of Britain’s Crimean enemy Czar Nicholas. The Village Green is identified as the location of two Bonfires and a band played.
There were firework displays featuring “rockets, squibs, fireballs, lighted tar barrels, and other fireworks, which were flying and rolling about in all directions, amongst hundreds of spectators.” The effigy was placed upon a bonfire and destroyed by more fireworks. The report concludes: “The whole affair was admirably conducted, and great praise is due to those by whom it was managed in so orderly a manner.”
1887: The first reference to Newick Bonfire Society is made in a report of an Annual Bonfire Boys Supper at the Bull Inn, presided over by the Secretary, G.H.Chrismas.
1891: The balance of the money from the [Newick] Celebrations was given to the [Newick] Cottage Hospital: The first reference to a charitable gift made by the Society.
1906 to 1908: There were no Newick celebrations in 1906, 1907 or 1908 due to severe restrictions imposed countywide by the County Council and enforced by the Constabulary.
1909: Newick Bonfire Night was revived with a draughted Bonfire (similar to that built today), but enthusiasm had declined during the enforced interlude.
1914 to 1918: Bonfire Night was suspended for the duration of the First World War and the national mood following the Armistice supressed any revival of celebrations in Newick and many other towns and villages for several years. The original pre-war Newick Bonfire Society did not reform and regrettably its records and regalia were lost. But its tradition was not.
1921 to 1923: Commemorative Armistice Day bonfires and fireworks were arranged on the village green by the Newick branch of the Royal British Legion.
1934: A few villagers led by neighbours Jim Reynolds and Harry Fuller initiated a tentative revival of Bonfire Night. A Bonfire and fireworks display were held in Jim’s large back garden opposite the Royal Oak.
1935: The landlord of the Bull Inn offered the use of the Bull Field (now Marbles Road) as a Bonfire site and supplied some fireworks. Jim made some torches and put up a notice outside his home advertising “Everyone’s Bonfire in the Bull Field on November 5th. Procession starts here at 6.30.” A few costumed villagers and a Guy on a trolley paraded by torchlight from the Royal Oak to the Bonfire via the village pump, led by Jim playing ‘Sussex by the Sea’ on a mouth organ.
Interest and enthusiasm were evidently rekindled from these humble beginnings for on:
19 August 1936: “A meeting was convened at the “Bull Hotel”, Newick ….
Mr J. Reynolds opened the meeting and it was decided to form the Bonfire Society.”
These are the opening words of the minutes of the first Annual General Meeting of the current Newick Bonfire Society. Mr. G. Bannister was elected its first President and a committee established to manage the event, held that November in Bannister’s Field near the telephone exchange.
1937: The celebrations continued in Bannister’s Field and the Society’s original large cloth banner was professionally made. Restored in 1977 and used every year until 2000, when owing to its age and frailty it was superseded by our current banner, the 1937 banner survives today.
1939 to 1945: Bonfire Night was again suspended during wartime.
September 1945: Celebrating the end of the war, a Bonfire and fireworks display took place in the playing field.
1946: Newick Bonfire Night resumed and began developing towards today’s event.
1950: The Bonfire was built in the Paygate field, east of Tollgate Cottage, and Cliffe Bonfire Society of Lewes were the first visiting society to participate. That same year, Newick attended its first ‘outmeeting’ supporting Cliffe in Lewes.
1953: The Bonfire returned to its traditional site on the village green where it has burned annually ever since, excepting only the pandemic year of 2020.
1994: The Society became a limited company and a new membership structure was introduced.
1999: Heralding the New Millenium, Newick entered the Guinness Book of Records by building and firing on the village green what was then, at 86 feet in diameter, the world’s largest ever Catherine Wheel.
2026: Financed by fundraising and subscription, Newick Bonfire Society celebrates the 90th anniversary of its 1936 rebirth with a Bonfire Night, the premier event of its kind, based as ever upon fire, noise and tradition. At its heart, a hand-built Bonfire with Bonfire Clergy leading the Bonfire Prayers, torchlit processions including fire-banners, the unique and mighty rolling tar barrel and 17 burning crosses representing the 17 Sussex Martyrs of the 1550s. The fireworks are electronically fired to guarantee the best of modern displays.
Following the first charitable gift of 1891, all the money collected during the Newick Bonfire Night street collection is given to deserving causes. Beginning with the equivalent of £8.57 in 1936, Newick Bonfire Society has raised over £104,000 for good causes, with almost £40,000 having been collected in the last 10 years.
Our village is fortunate to have such a community-based organisation, enabling people to gather and share warmth, companionship and humanity, the past, present and future reflected deep within the flames.
We are indebted to Tony Turk for his extensive research, and the recorded memories of the late Roland Reynolds (1928 – 2014), son of Jim Reynolds and a founder member in 1936, for much of the information used in this article.
