Firework displays to light up the borough

Three huge bonfire and firework displays will light up the night sky across Rochdale borough.

Residents are invited to throw on their warm clothes and head to one of Rochdale Borough Council’s organised bonfire displays:

• Middleton at Bowlee Community Park, on Wednesday 29 October;
  
• Rochdale at Cronkeyshaw Common, Syke, on Thursday 30 October;
  
• Heywood at Cherwell Avenue, on Friday 31 October.
  

All three bonfires will be lit at 7pm with firework displays due to start at 7.30pm. 

Visitors to the bonfires at Middleton and Heywood can roll up and enjoy all the fun of the fair with rides like dodgems, waltzers and merry-go-rounds at these two events.

Last year there was a bumper turnout of 2,000 people at Bowlee, 1,200 in Syke and 2,500 in Heywood, so make sure you get there early to grab your spot for the spectacle.

For the fourth year running, Rochdale Borough Council has banned all unauthorised bonfires on local authority land to keep people safe and reduce the likelihood of accidents. If any unauthorised bonfires are found they will be removed. The nine other local authorities in Greater Manchester have also adopted that approach.

Councillor Jacqui Beswick, Cabinet Member for Place and Regulation at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Attending an organised bonfire display is also a good way of ensuring that you stay safe. The borough has a proud tradition of staging fantastic family events for Bonfire Night and this year will be no exception. With three different events taking place across the borough, there’s enough choice to keep everyone entertained, and it’s all completely free of charge."

A whole host of agencies from across Greater Manchester, including the police, fire service and local authorities, will be working together to keep people safe over the Halloween and Bonfire Night period. To find out more and get top safety tips and advice, please visit www.safe4autumn.com

To report an unauthorised bonfire on council land please contact 0845 226 1800.

Factfile

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot..."

Did you know there’s a Rochdale borough connection as to why we celebrate Bonfire Night each November 5? Otherwise we would be commemorating the assasinaton of a King.

Magistrate Peter Heywood, a resident of Heywood Hall, captured Guy Fawkes as he emerged from the vault of the Houses of Parliament on the eve of the Gunpowder Plot, 5 November 1605. Guy Fawkes was one of a number of plotters who felt King James I was not doing enough to end the persecution of Catholics and so they decided to blow up Parliament.

Peter was with Sir Thomas Knyvett and reputedly snatched away Guy Fawkes’ lit torch as he was about to detonate kegs of gunpowder secreted in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament. A lantern, believed to be identical to the one found in the possession of Guy Fawkes, was presented to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, by his son Robert Heywood in 1641.

Peter was the brother of Robert Heywood of Heywood, and the younger son of another Peter Heywood, one of the Counsellors of Jamaica.

In a twist of fate, Peter met his end at the hands of a Catholic in 1642. He tried to persuade papist John James, to take an oath of allegiance during a trial at Westminster Hall, when James suddenly drew out a knife and fatally stabbed him ‘for persecuting poor Catholics’. An epitaph to his memory is in the Church of St Anne’s in Aldersgate, London.