Hove, Tunbridge Wells and Lewes bonfire night

We had a lovely stay with Kate and Rob in Hove.

We went to Tunbridge Wells one day and enjoyed the interesting streets and shops. We parked Gus in Lewes ready for the bonfire night before the roads were all blocked off.

The Pantiles area in Tunbridge Wells started in the 1600s when a spring was discovered. It became popular in the 1700s for the gentry to come to drink the waters. The area then developed to accommodate the visitors.

It has an outdoor central eating area with a stage for the summer.

We liked perusing the quirky shops - particularly the home and kitchen shops stocked with a huge variety of items.

Back in Hove we went out to the George Payne pub for dinner. It was burger and pint night for 10 pounds - a good deal - so we all had some form of burger and the Lewes Harvey brewery real ale - very good. The Halloween lanterns were still around as we walked home.

The next day on 5th November we went to Lewes around midday. Rob is still not well with a bad cold so he dropped us off.

First stop was Southover Grange Gardens where Glenn’s sister Lisa and Rob’s brother Sean were married. It is a lovely area with the trees in their autumn colours.

The craft shop was very lovely too.

We then checked out the streets where it will all be happening tonight with the processions of the 6 bonfire societies. We spotted a few banners and parts of the procession later.

The big event started at 5pm from the war memorial. There were initially band performances remembering the war dead.

We then saw the Cliff Society lighting their 11 crosses representing the 17 Protestants martyrs who died for their faith. There were then the other societies with American Indian outfits, pirates and day of the dead.

Torches were dropped on the road when they were about to run out and picked up by the tar barrels following the parade.

We later saw some effigies to be burned later.

Paula Vennells who wrongly caused lots of post masters to be jailed was the largest one - dressed in an envelope addressed to HM Prisons. There were devils - and bonfire liaison officers.

Kate and Rob’s lovely friend Jeremy lives in Lewes and hosted us plus 12 other people to dinner. We had dinner in shifts in his tiny house.

At around 10.30 the final processions started to the bonfire locations. We followed the Commercial Square society down a dark lane to a large field. There was already a bonfire going at another location.

There was a Big Ben effigy to be set fire later.

They then filed into the field and set fire to the bonfire.

A ‘bishop’ gave a sermon and was pelted by fire crackers - literally rained on - for 15 minutes.

Then the fireworks began - an amazing display with a huge number of big fireworks. Big Ben went up in a mushroom cloud.

After it was finished we went back to Jeremy’s for a delicious and huge home-made tiramisu.

We then walked back to Gus seeing the sky seeming to be on fire .

We then had a remarkably peaceful night beside the cricket ground.