Lewes Bonfire: We Burn to Remember

Every November, the quiet town of Lewes in East Sussex transforms into something fierce and luminous. Smoke winds through the narrow streets, drums echo off the flint walls, and the night burns with firelight. This is Lewes Bonfire — a ritual born from centuries of rebellion, remembrance, and resistance. It’s not just a display of fireworks; it’s a living act of defiance, a declaration that this small town has always stood apart.

The roots of it go deep. In 1555, seventeen Protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here for refusing to renounce their faith. Their courage marked the soil, and every year since, the people of Lewes have remembered — not only them, but every act of struggle against the forces that try to quiet conviction. The bonfire became a language of protest, a roar against conformity, and a way to honour those who dared to resist.

I grew up in that smoke. And with it, in the understanding that resistance takes many forms. In Lewes, it’s fire and memory. In my own life, it’s been the fight to keep creating through uncertainty — and through the years I spent working in disaster recovery, witnessing firsthand what survival means when everything else is stripped away. There’s a kind of quiet defiance in getting up after loss, in rebuilding from ashes, in finding beauty in what’s been burned.

That’s the spirit that led me to create Menteath. The bonfire taught me that beauty can be born from resistance, that creation often begins in struggle. My smoke-infused skincare is a reflection of that alchemy — fire becoming scent, memory becoming ritual, defiance becoming care.

Lewes taught me that we are shaped by what we endure. The martyrs, the marchers, the nights of flame against the cold — all of it lives in the smoke.