THE small historic town in Sussex holds Britain’s largest bonfire night celebrations to celebrate November 5, a tradition believed to be ongoing since the 1600s.

Six Lewes Bonfire Societies will return, once again, to the Lewes town centre in their hundreds, marching through the town with blazing barrels and flaming torches with thousands of spectators.

While huge crowds descend on the town to join in the festivities and admire the flaming spectacles, debate still surrounds the origins of the popular bonfire night.

Many historians link the celebrations back to the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 where a group of English Catholics, including the now infamous Guy Fawkes, were foiled in their plot to blow up the House of Parliament.

Another often discussed reason for the burning torches and flaming barrels in Lewes links to commemorating the 17 Protestants from Lewes who were burned at the stake between 1555 and 1557.

Most of us may think the legacy of Christian religious violence in Britain is history, but in this small Sussex town the memories live on.

Members march through the streets of dainty shops and pubs with flaming crosses towards the War Memorial to remind people of the 17 martyrs.

Others believe the bonfire celebrations represent the old pagan Samhain, a festival marking the end of the harvest, and a warning of the approach of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

The East Sussex County and West Kent area has a long history of torchlight processions, bonfires and fireworks, and Lewes is just one of the many towns and villages that follows an annual tradition of a bonfire and the carrying of torches in the streets for this historic event.

Between the societies, some of which date back to 1853, there will be approximately 3,500 members marching throughout the evening, and joining them there will be around 20 invited kindred Bonfire Societies from other parts of the region.

According to the Lewes Bonfire Celebration group, Lewes police made an attempt in 1832 to prevent the bonfire celebrations taking place.

The police issued hundreds of prohibition notes throughout the town but the bonfire societies and celebrators completely ignored them and fireworks, flaming torches and processions with blazing barrels continued.

The procession of statues and figureheads, often representing those hated by the town’s people, is also an old East Sussex tradition and is still a popular part of the Sussex Bonfire Society tradition today.

Last year, the Lewes bonfire celebrations included figureheads of Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un and Theresa May.

The Lewes bonfire night is not only seen as a tradition, but a way of life for thousands in the village.

Many who attend still find it difficult to understand what drives the bonfire societies and the town’s people into carrying flaming torches and blazing statues and barrels in the streets.