Unique British tradition that's worth keeping

LAST night, as no Englishman or woman should need reminding, was Bonfire Night.

- PHILIP BOWERN

But what's happening to the indelible date in the calendar that, even when I was a boy, was always marked with a celebration?

More often than not, through the late 60s, 70s and 80s, there would be a huge bonfire in the local park near where I lived, on which an effigy of Guy Fawkes was ceremonially burned, along with a firework display, usually organised reassuringly - by men from the local fire brigade.

And if we couldn't get along to that then at the very least my sister and I would light up a packet of sparklers and a Catherine wheel in the back garden and munch on a toffee apple.

In the weeks leading up to November 5 several children in my street would make a mannequin out of old clothes, stuffed with newspaper and straw, and wheel it around on a trolley demanding "a penny for the Guy."

While there were still events last night - and will be at the weekend across the Westcountry several have been cancelled on health and safety grounds, while the historical background to the event has been all but forgotten.

And when did you last see a small boy holding out his hand for a penny as reward for his skills as the constructor of an effigy of a Catholic revolutionary he intended to burn?