Bonfire Night on Kenton Bar, Bonfires & Bonny Gangs

Bonfire Night or as we called it Bonny Night was one of the highlights of the year – why? Because it afforded an opportunity for mischief on a grand scale. Anything and I mean ANYTHING combustible that was not permanently secured to an immovable object would be spirited away to the bonny site or the storage site (usually a disused garage or a hiding place in the fields. It also gave an opportunity for residents to get rid of unwanted tings from their houses like old sofas, old mattresses and basically anything that could be burned.

 

Bonny gangs – I only ever ‘joined’ two gangs during all the years that I lived on Kenton Bar and as GOM said elsewhere these gangs were territorial in nature with kids from the top of the estate getting involved in the gang that would hide their bonny wood in a field behind the shops at Mallowburn Crescent, this gang was called the “Collectors of sundry combustibles Gang” and the kids from the bottom of the estate, this gang was called the “Proletariat burners”, using an old garage if they could find one or simply piling the bonny wood at the bonny site and guarding it as much as possible. The bonny site for the Collectors of sundry combustibles was the small triangular field near to the storage site, the storage site being the nearby ditch and hedgerow. The bonny site for the bottom part of the estate was the mini plateaux between Studdon Walk and the school field. Why and how did I manage to join both gangs? Well although territorial they did allow outsiders from time to time and as I used to hang out with kids from the top of the estate sometimes I would join that gang. In other years I would be in the PB’s.
Some points of interest:-

• One year when I was a member of the PB’s we had 2-3 empty garages that we managed to infiltrate and use for bonny wood storage. Some old biddy alerted the authorities and we were paid a visit by the local constabulary and of course the fire brigade. It being a large pile of combustible materials next to a load of metal boxes filled with petrol (cars……). We were told to move the wood but having nowhere else to go we moved it to the bonny site. Lo and behold some old biddy complained again and the fire brigade moved in once again. They told us it could not be left where it was because we had put the wood on top of a manhole cover or some such cal. So we had to move about 4 tons of wood again………….. only to have our pile set alight by a rival gang and all the work gone to waste.
• Another time I was a member of the COSC gang and we had a usual pile of stuff in the ditch and the hedgerows – the gang was about 30-40 strong I seem to remember. Now hear this and believe me or kiss my sharries……. I was ferreting about in the field near the bonny site and came across (avert your eyes ladies) a pile of what at first appeared to be pieces of chalk or plaster. On closer inspection they all turned out to be the same shape. And that shape was the shape of a large penis cut in half lengthways – like a split banana if you get my drift. Each on was plain white and had a hook embedded in the plaster on the flat side as if to hang them on a wall, kind of like Hilda Ogden’s plaster ducks that she had on her wall in Coronation Street. We gathered these together and smashed them up to use as chalk on the pavements. I never did find out at the time how they got there or who put them there and ever since then I have wondered about their origins. Maybe some kind reader knows more?

Question – how come it always seemed to piss down on or near bonny night? With the ground sodden and all the wood wet the bonnies often took a little help from a bottle of petrol to get them going………..

Bonfire Night

This was a big night for all the kids who were allowed out by their parents. There was a tangible sense of danger in the air. At any time you could be targeted with a thrown banger or hit by a straying rocket. The air smelled of fire and brimstone. The sky obscured with smoke, the wail of fire engines in the distance and police sirens was all pervasive. My usual “thing” was to first of all go to the bonny whose gang I had been part of and as these were usually smallish affairs the wood got burned up pretty quickly. Once there was a pile of embers left you could either stay beside it vainly attempting to keep the fire burning by getting anything nearby that was combustible and throwing it on or one could tottle off and visit other bonfires. One thing that some used to do was to throw potatoes wrapped in tin foil into the embers and then vainly try and retrieve them once they were deemed as cooked. This usually meant that you got a ‘baked’ potato that resembled a comet with an outer shell of ultra-carbon and an inner core of raw potato – nevertheless they tasted wonderful and were wolfed down with vigour.

Sometimes there would be a big bonfire arranged by the council over at North Kenton on the Ponderosa near the Quarry pub. Some years there was even a firework display

The Aftermath

Some naughty malchicks would try and keep the fires burning for days afterwards but almost all failed there being a limit to the amount of time one could spend gathering wood, the wood supply itself and of course one had to see what was vareeting in the great seat of gloopy useless learning - oh my brothers. For weeks afterwards you could find the burned out fireworks tubes, rocket sticks and of course the charred scars on the bonny site itself.