…gunpowder, treason & plot.

In my home town of Marlow, the Sunday nearest Bonfire Night is the date for the running of the Marlow Half Marathon and in the spirit of the day the race is started not by a flag or a starting pistol ……no, it starts with Guy Fawkes setting off a rocket. The official timing starts when the rocket goes “Bang”

The 5th of November is “Guy Fawkes Night” in the UK and is traditionally celebrated with fireworks and bonfires on which “the guy”, an effigy of Guy Fawkes, is burnt.

Guy Fawkes was part of a conspiracy in 1605 to blow up the English Parliament. The conspirators were catholics protesting against persecution of their religion and were driven to take violent action, hoping to kill the King and members of the Parliament.

Would you trust this man with matches?

The plotters gathered 36 barrels of gunpowder and hid them under the House of Lords. However, several members of the plot began to have second thoughts realising that innocent people may be hurt or killed including those sympathetic to the catholics. One member of the plot is through to have sent a letter to a friend warning him to stay away from Parliament on November 5th.

Acting on this letter, the King’s forces stormed the cellar where the gunpowder was stored, Guy Fawkes was in the cellar was caught, tortured and executed.

“Excuse me, which way to Parliament?”

To this day, the reigning monarch only enters Parliament once a year on the State Opening and before the Opening the cellars under the House of Lords are searched by the Yeoman of the Guard.

On the night that the actual Gunpowder Plot was foiled, November 5th 1605, bonfires were lit in celebration and the day has been commemorated in that way ever since on Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night.

Being English we never quite let on whether we are celebrating the plot being foiled or Guy Fawkes trying to blow up Parliament!!

My mum ran in the Marlow Half Marathon (yes she is mad and runs all the time!)

This is me seeing her off at the start:

and meeting her with a cup of tea at the finish (that’s my dad and my little brother behind us) :

This weekend was lovely and sunny during the day, but very cold – I love this sort of weather. Really clear and bright and bitingly cold so you have to wrap up warm and get out there.

The acers in my garden looked gorgeous in the sunshine -

but Simpson has decided that it’s too cold outside for him and curled up on the sofa with me –