As children in Church End, one of our favourite times of year were the weeks leading to November 5th. My memory now is a little hazy, and it maybe that the events of several years have been mashed together, but nevertheless I think is worth recalling. My guess is that this would of all happened around the middle 1970’s.

As soon as we got back to school after the summer holidays (whether that was Junior School or early secondary I’m not sure), the collection of firewood for the bonfire would begin. Now unlike some bonfires, this would not happen in situ, because that was far too risky. One of our rival bonfires was the one on East Common, and on at least one occasion it got burned down before the actual night (not by us), and this would have been a complete disaster, especially if really close to the BIG DAY.

(For a story that confirms that I have said is true see this quote from Mark O’Hara writing as the Redbourn Scribbler – “Now I’m not sure who started it but on the odd occasion, the Boys of Redbourn Fire Brigade would be called, not for a hoax call but for the early lighting of a bonfire or two. This always entailed tit-for-tat raids, usually escalating to involve the bigger boys, our mentors and heroes, all wearing tank-tops and high waistband baggy trousers taken-up to show off Dr Martens boots. The best pre-burns were the ones, three or four days before the 5th. Then frantic rebuilding of the bonfire would follow, late night patrols were placed to stop further raids, security was paramount, and getting to the 5th with Bonfires intact was the goal.”)

Just round the corner from Church End, on West Common, there was an empty building site (now a bungalow for which the foundations provided many more excursions – but that is for another day), and it was here that we collected the wood and burnable garden rubbish that could go on the bonfire. We would regularly visit the church yard and other overgrown areas looking for fallen/ dead-looking branches that we could haul back to the collection site. We would also make a guy which we took to the High Street and waited outside the newsagents on the corner of Fish Street looking for loose change. Any money made would go towards fireworks. After Halloween, we would arrange a time to haul everything we had collected to the bonfire site. As we got more successful each year , this became a mammoth task, but the bonfire would always look good and would be reinforced by people adding their own garden rubbish and the odd pallet/tea chest from Brooke Bond.

The triangle of land for the first bonfire. The Silver birch was not there then.

The first year we did this, the bonfire was on the triangle of land at the end of Church End, but subsequently we moved behind the trees by West Common. To be honest I can’t remember whether we got permission or not. I think we did, but it maybe the hazy memory again. The fireworks were provided by a collective of families who came along with assorted boxes rather than the well-orchestrated events of today, with electronic firing and choreographed releases. To be honest I think I preferred our version. There were also hot potatoes to eat and sparklers to wave around. When rockets went up, we would look for the glow of the spent firework as it came to ground and we could collect them. The next day the embers would still be glowing (even one year when it rained heavily), and we would try and get all the unburned bits around the edge into the fire.

Nowadays, of course, health and safety would never allow this kind of event, but as far as I recall there were never any casualties. One year we just stopped the organising and it never happened again. I guess this was around the time of becoming a teenager when more grown up things became more interesting than lugging a massive branch up the length of Church End.