Sussex News - Heathfield & District - 25 September 2026

Of all the ancient East Sussex bonfire societies, Mayfield can claim to be the one with its roots firmly fixed in the town's gruesome rural history.

In September 1556, when Catholic Queen Mary I was on the English throne, four men were burned at the stake in Mayfield.

Their crime was refusing to renounce their Protestant faith and return to the Roman Catholic Church.

There's a memorial to them outside Coggins Mill Church, and Mayfield Bonfire Society marchers carry four crosses at the front of their procession in memory of the martyrs.

Three more local people, William Maynard, Thomasina Wood, and Alexander Hosman, were burnt alongside seven others on June 22, 1557, outside the Star Inn at the top of Cliff Hill in Lewes.

Maynard is said to be a member of an ancient family at Mayfield, and Thomasina, a native of Mayfield, was a maid in his service.

Queen Mary later became known as Bloody Mary because of the 300 Protestant executions that were authorised under her short two-and-a-half-year reign.

Sussex bonfire societies were formed to commemorate the burnings during the Catholic Reformation from 1553 to 1558.

Society members traditionally wear jumpers with ringed or hooped patterns, known as guernseys or stripes, with each society wearing their own colours.

Mayfield's stripes are black and turquoise.

This is because the jumpers were inspired by the striped shirts of the Sussex smugglers, gangs who ruled the East Sussex coastline in the 1700s.

Mayfield was a base for a powerful company of smugglers, whose leader, Gabriel Tompkins, claimed to have smuggled 11 tonnes of tea and coffee a year.

Mayfield Bonfire Society members believe it's important to keep this history alive and ensure the tradition of the carnival continues.

Last weekend, society members from all across East and West Sussex converged on Mayfield for what seemed to be an endless procession of colour and light, but with the fate of those brave Tudor villagers always at the forefront of their minds.

Of all the ancient East Sussex bonfire societies, Mayfield can claim to be the one with its roots firmly fixed in the town's gruesome rural history.

In September 1556, when Catholic Queen Mary I was on the English throne, four men were burned at the stake in Mayfield.

Their crime was refusing to renounce their Protestant faith and return to the Roman Catholic Church.

There's a memorial to them outside Coggins Mill Church, and Mayfield Bonfire Society marchers carry four crosses at the front of their procession in memory of the martyrs.

Three more local people, William Maynard, Thomasina Wood, and Alexander Hosman, were burnt alongside seven others on June 22, 1557, outside the Star Inn at the top of Cliff Hill in Lewes.

Maynard is said to be a member of an ancient family at Mayfield, and Thomasina, a native of Mayfield, was a maid in his service.

Queen Mary later became known as Bloody Mary because of the 300 Protestant executions that were authorised under her short two-and-a-half-year reign.

Sussex bonfire societies were formed to commemorate the burnings during the Catholic Reformation from 1553 to 1558.

Society members traditionally wear jumpers with ringed or hooped patterns, known as guernseys or stripes, with each society wearing their own colours.

Mayfield's stripes are black and turquoise.

This is because the jumpers were inspired by the striped shirts of the Sussex smugglers, gangs who ruled the East Sussex coastline in the 1700s.

Mayfield was a base for a powerful company of smugglers, whose leader, Gabriel Tompkins, claimed to have smuggled 11 tonnes of tea and coffee a year.

Mayfield Bonfire Society members believe it's important to keep this history alive and ensure the tradition of the carnival continues.

Last weekend, society members from all across East and West Sussex converged on Mayfield for what seemed to be an endless procession of colour and light, but with the fate of those brave Tudor villagers always at the forefront of their minds.