Beating the sticks round the Marlborough bonfire

5 November · Marlborough, Wiltshire

No longer kept

At the Marlborough bonfires the country people walked round the fire in a ring, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders. Others stood outside the ring and beat those sticks as they passed, everyone shouting and screaming. Dyer, quoting Notes and Queries, says this went on at intervals until the fire died out.

They form themselves into a ring of some dozen or more round the bonfire, and follow each other round it, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders

From Dyer's British Popular Customs, p. 415. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Guy Fawkes’ Day Still kept EnglandAn Act of 1606 made the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot a holiday, and by Chambers's day it was one of the most joyous days of the year for English boys.
The Purton bonfire No longer kept WiltshireFor weeks before the Fifth the boys of Purton went to every house begging faggots, with a rhyme threatening to take two if they were refused one, and one hard farmer lost a new pump to the fire.
The Islip bonfire rhyme No longer kept OxfordshireThe boys who carried the guy round on the Fifth had many local versions of the rhyme.
Remember the Bonfire at Walthamstow No longer kept EssexOn Bonfire Night the bonfire boys of Walthamstow chanted the Gunpowder Plot rhyme, asking for a stick and a stake for King George's sake, and then gave three halloos.
The butchers’ bonfire in Clare Market No longer kept LondonOn the fifth of November the butchers of Clare Market built their own bonfire in the open market by Bear Yard and thrashed each other round it with the sinews of slaughtered bulls.

Beating the sticks round the Marlborough bonfire

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