While Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot of 1605 dominate the UK’s autumnal bonfire tradition, Lewes Bonfire Society also remembers the 17 martyrs burnt to death by Mary I in the town in the 1500s.
The event is the result of the combined work of seven bonfire societies, most of which date back to the 19th Century.
Each society is located in a different part of town, centred around its own pub, which doubles as an HQ. Six societies are taking part this year, according to Lewes District Council.
Two of the societies, Lewes Borough Bonfire Society and Cliffe Bonfire Society, date back to 1853 – but the celebrations are said to have been going on for many years before that.
