OUR HISTORYIn common with many of the Sussex Bonfire societies, Chiddingly has a long history of participation in our county's unique proceedings. First reports of there being any sort of formal organisation in the village date back to 1829! - highlighting the Parish of Chiddingly's near two century's traditional bonfire heritage.
A young man, by the name of George White, aged 11, kept a diary in this year. George was born Wednesday 5th August 1818, however never made it to adulthood and sadly by the age of 17 had died, on Saturday 3rd October 1835. He was the eldest son of James White of Muddles Green, Chiddingly, Sussex - a Blacksmith and Farmer. George attended Richard Lower’s village school in Muddles Green, where he learnt to read and write, but had evidently started work before he was eleven years old. Within this diary, his entry for Thursday 5th November 1829 reads; "A very fine day. Richard White come here to plow. I went to Mr Randle’s at Whitesmith. I went to Martha’s. I went to picken up potatoes. Ody went to dungen. I went down to the Place. Father went down to Burwick. I went to picken up potatoes bondfire day, and I went to Mr Noakes bondfire." ‘Mr Noakes’ was a George Noakes, born in the Parish of Hellingly on Friday 31st January 1755, and was a very wealthy Yeoman who owned land including in both Chiddingly and Laughton. Mr Noakes, unlike Master White, lived to the grand old age of 89, passing in the July of 1844, and is buried at St. John the Baptist Church in Ripe. There are a couple of candidates of where this 1829 ‘bondfire’ took place, but the most likely location was at Noakes’ garden of his Holme’s Hill home, designated as field ‘808’ on the Tithe Map of the Parish of Chiddingly, surveyed by the aforementioned Richard Lower in 1839. |
In today’s setting, this is Watson’s Cottage and is located opposite the Trug Store at the Wattle along the A22. Mr Noakes is later recorded as living here in the Sussex Electoral Roll of 1842, with Ann Ingram, his 61 year old housekeeper.
There is another field documented on the Tithe Map of 1839, field '949' - known as 'Noakes Field', and by this time belonged to a Mrs Gwynne, and was occupied by the rather glamorously named Philadelphia Haffenden. This piece of arable pasture could have of course been previously owned by Mr Noakes a decade earlier, thus the name, and could have been the location of the 1829 bonfire. This field today contains the entrances to, and properties adjacent to, Mill Farm off of the Chalvington Road. It’s amazing to think that a young boy, with a little education, whose diary shows a captivation with spuds (potatoes are mentioned 29 times!), can connect us so well with our Bonfire past near two hundred years on!
Forty-eight years later the Southern Weekly News of Saturday 10th November 1877 records the formation of the Whitesmith Bonfire Society that year and its celebrations on "Guy Fawkes Day" concluding with a bonfire 'near the street' - The Street, Chiddingly. |
A decade on, we find another torchlit procession and bonfire in Chiddingly, this time in the late June of 1887, in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubliee, and detailed in the Eastbourne Chronicle of Saturday 2nd July 1887 - _“At ten o'olock a large bonfire was lighted, and a torchlight procession, pre-ceded by the Chiddingly brass band, concluded the festivities.”_ Although it is unknown whether this was arranged by an organised bonfire society, it is quite plausible it was.
Later in 1912 the Chiddingly Bonfire Boys joined forces with collaborators from Horsebridge and Dicker to celebrate the Fifth of November. |
It is also stated that this was 'the first year that (the different groups) have combined together' and that they had 'revived the old customary torchlight processions' so, clearly, there had been similar goings on before this date.
The main feature of these 110 year old celebrations was the enormous route march that was undertaken. After a preliminary amble, starting at 6pm, which went from the White Hart at Upper Horsebridge to Leap Cross down London Road towards Hailsham, up Hawks Road and along Upper Horsebridge Road back to the starting point (a mere two and a half miles), the procession set off on The Main Event. |
This was to take them straight over what is now the Boship Roundabout, along the main road and down Coldharbour Road to The Plough. Then - presumably after refreshments were taken - it was up Camberlot and back on the A22 to Golden Cross, at which point there was an abrupt about face and a return to Hellingly for the climactic bonfire and fireworks, which finished close to midnight. This second leg of the evening's hike equated to another eight and a half miles, for a grand total of eleven miles over the course of six hours.
Now, I thought it was hard work marching at Lewes as a guest of South Street, with half a dozen trips down to The Snowdrop and back in to town, but that only added up to just over six miles - I dread to think what the consequences of pretty much twice as much tramping about in one evening would be! |
"Here's a photo from the Sussex Express of Chiddingly Bonfire 7th November 1964, my Dad Ian Newman is pushing the barrow with the guy. The chap on the right in the light trousers is Mr Cull who organised the bonfires. The little lad next to him in the black coat is Paul Newman from The Six Bells"