In early-19th-century Winchester, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot was marked by both formal and informal celebrations. Formally, the Church of England commemorated the occasion with peals of bells and the inclusion in its services of references to ‘the most traitorous and bloody-intended massacre by gunpowder’. Alongside these were several less structured revelries staged by city residents, including the building of bonfires, letting off fireworks, and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes himself.
The Anglican church abandoned its formal celebrations in 1858, presumably because the idea of marking a festival with strong anti-Papal overtones had become outdated and dangerously divisive. Despite this, the informal, popular events which surrounded ‘Bonfire Night’ continued to be held in Winchester. These unofficial celebrations were largely the work of the city’s young men, mainly drawn from its poorer neighbourhoods.
These events had long been associated with a degree of lawlessness. As early as 1825, the Hampshire Chronicle felt it necessary to remind its readers of the legal penalties associated with discharging fireworks in the street. And, in 1848, the newspaper reported that the anniversary had witnessed ‘a large concourse of unruly youths’ on Oram’s Arbour who had been engaged in kicking a large ‘fireball’ across the field, the windows of nearby houses had been broken, and several arrests were made. As the largest publicly-accessible open space in the city, the Arbour was at the epicentre of Winchester’s annual unofficial celebrations.
As the century progressed the disorderly antics of Bonfire Night demanded a response from the city authorities. Each year, the local police took the precaution of swearing in a number of citizens to act as Special Constables for the evening. This action seems to have raised the tensions further and the number of violent incidents increased. In 1865, six arrests were made for offences which included obstructing the highway, throwing stones, and an assault on a policeman.
The Guy Fawkes’ Night disorders reached their height during the 1870s. In 1871 a gang of boys lit a fireball and proceeded to kick it from the Arbour down the length of the High Street, while also hurling both fireworks (and punches) at the police. In subsequent years, Bonfire Night became a game of cat-and-mouse between the youths of the city and its police, with the boys trying to spread their fiery celebrations into the city while the police attempted to confine them to the Arbour.
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In 1872, having been pushed back up the High Street by the police, the crowd uprooted the fences, benches and trees of the Arbour to build a bonfire, all the while singing anti-police songs. In 1875, the police were assailed in the streets with stones, mud and flour bombs before charging the mob with drawn truncheons. The following year a ‘riot’ saw the windows of the city’s newly-opened Art School’s shattered, the destruction of several street lamps, and the smashing of both faces of the City Clock. Arrests were made, with some culprits receiving three-month prison sentences.
But the most shocking events occurred in 1877. That year, alongside the now-customary kicking of fireballs through the city’s streets, the Hampshire Chronicle reported on a disturbing ‘innovation’ among the carousers - the adoption of small fireballs attached to three-foot-long wires. The wire allowed the fireball to be hurled across substantial distances. Some landed, without the inhabitants knowing, on the roofs of their houses. Also, the Hyde Street house of the former Mayor, William Budden, was attacked with a primitive form of firebomb made from a tin can filled with inflammable liquid. This was thrown through a window, setting light to a carpet and a window blind. Fortunately, a quick-thinking passer-by extinguished the flames, preventing the destruction of the house and its occupants.
Clearly, the November the fifth celebrations were becoming a problem in Winchester. And, although the annual number of incidents and arrests reduced after 1877, this was largely the result of the heightened police presence in the streets during those years. The tension, fear and anxiety which surrounded Guy Fawkes’ Night persisted into the 1880s.
However, a solution was found in 1885 when a group comprising local politicians and tradesmen set out to reclaim Bonfire Night for the wider community. They arranged a series of organised events for 5 November, culminating with a mass gathering on the Arbour. An organising committee, the ‘Winchester Bonfire Boys Society’, was established and quickly launched a public subscription to raise funds for the proposed festivities. In its first year, the Committee raised nearly £70 from donations.
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The 1885 event was a huge success. The evening began with a procession - reportedly half a mile long - consisting of marching bands, carnival floats, costumed participants and torchbearers. It was led on horseback by the City Police chief. After a meandering tour through the city’s streets, the column arrived at Oram’s Arbour where a huge bonfire was lit, after which those gathered were treated to a stunning firework display. In contrast to earlier years, the crowd gave three cheers for the Mayor and sang a lusty rendition of the National Anthem before vacating the Arbour long before midnight. And there were no arrests.
The Bonfire Boys had successfully appropriated Bonfire Night, neutralised the threat that it posed, and demonstrated that Guy Fawkes celebrations could be civilised. The Society expanded its annual festivities during the remainder of the nineteenth century, and introduced prizes for the procession’s best costumes, tableaux and floats. Their events attracted visitors to Winchester. As many as 25,000 people attended the 1896 procession, a figure greater than the city’s resident population.
The Bonfire Committee’s final Guy Fawkes procession was held in 1901. The reason for the abrupt ending of this popular carnival is unclear. Maybe, with the Boer War raging in South Africa, an ostentatious celebration may have seemed inappropriate. Or possibly the organising committee simply ran out of steam.
Whatever the reason, there were no further large-scale Guy Fawkes festivities in Winchester until 1958, when the Winchester Round Table took on the responsibility of organising the city’s celebrations. Its present-day format – featuring a torchlit parade, an enormous bonfire and fireworks – bears a striking similarity to that held in the city during the 1880s. So, if you are one of the thousands expected to join the procession through the streets this Bonfire Night, keep in mind that you are not only participating in a tradition commemorating the foiled plot to kill the King, but also one that was originally aimed at addressing a more recent, and more local, outbreak of antisocial behaviour.
(with thanks to Marc Carter of Winchester Round Table)
Ian Denness
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