When Cuckfield’s Bonfire Boys Ruled the Streets

Costumes, crowds and burning barrels: remembering the town’s Fifth of November processions

Long before fireworks were choreographed to music at Cuckfield Park, the town’s November celebrations took over its streets. Newspaper accounts reveal a spirited Victorian occasion: bandsmen in fancy dress, banners carried through the town, crowds gathering outside the inns, and Bonfire Boys determined to make the Fifth a night to remember.

The surviving reports do not establish when Cuckfield’s processions began. They do, however, show that an organised tradition was flourishing by the early 1870s.

The Chichester Express and West Sussex Journal of 19 November 1872 offers a particularly appealing glimpse of the people behind the spectacle. Reporting the Bonfire Boys’ annual supper, it describes members assembling at Mr Burrell’s coach house to display their costumes before marching in double file behind a band whose musicians were also in masquerade. Banners accompanied them as they passed in front of Ockenden House and paraded through the town.

Their destination was the Rose and Crown, where between fifty and sixty members and friends enjoyed supper prepared by Mr and Mrs Tester. Mr W. Comber, of Winchester House, presided, with Mr Coates as vice-chairman. Songs, toasts and speeches followed. The report makes clear that bonfire membership involved companionship as well as spectacle: the shared meal mattered alongside the public parade.

Four years later, Cuckfield was attracting a substantial audience. The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, dated 11 November 1876, reported an estimated 2,000 people attending the celebrations. Visitors came from the surrounding area, and the principal procession left the Rose and Crown shortly after eight in the evening. Although commemorating the Fifth, that year’s festivities took place on the Monday.

The newspaper praised both the fireworks and the behaviour of the crowd. Club members acted as special constables, and proceedings were conducted with “strict propriety and decorum”. Behind the excitement lay an organisation conscious of its responsibility to keep order.

The fullest picture comes from the Mid Sussex Times of 12 November 1889. Under new management, the society had grown to about 110 members. Bugles sounded at six; at seven the first procession left the Rose and Crown for the Wheatsheaf and returned through the town. Another followed from Whitemans Green, before the grand procession set off shortly after nine.

Led by Cuckfield Town Band, the marchers carried flaming torches, accompanied by burning tar barrels. Cavaliers, Highlanders, sailors, highwaymen and jesters mingled with men in women’s clothing. Secretary A. Lukehurst appeared as a monarch, apparently Henry VIII. A decorated vehicle carried Britannia surrounded by soldiers and sailors.

There was a harsher side to the merriment. A “No Popery” banner and effigies of the Pope and Guy Fawkes expressed the celebration’s anti-Catholic character. Outside the Talbot, Lukehurst delivered a Protestant and patriotic address. Shortly before ten, a great bonfire near the headquarters received the effigies. These details place the procession firmly within the religious divisions and patriotic attitudes of its period.

The available accounts leave gaps in the later story. They do not demonstrate an uninterrupted procession tradition linking Victorian Cuckfield with today’s celebration, nor establish precisely when the old street parades ceased.

Nevertheless, the modern event has its own substantial history. In October 2016, a newspaper report marked the thirtieth year of the celebration in its then-current form. Chairman Gem Lee described audiences exceeding 6,000 at Cuckfield Park, provided courtesy of the Mayou family, with substantial sums raised for charity.

That community purpose continues. Today’s bonfire is lit by Cuckfield’s newly elected mayor, followed by a professional fireworks display set to music. Local schools and other good causes benefit from the evening’s proceeds.

The costumes, speeches and street processions belong to a different Cuckfield. Yet the old newspaper reports preserve something recognisable: the effort of volunteers, the anticipation of a November evening, and the pleasure of a community gathering around a great fire.