The Guildford Guy Riots: Being an Exact Description of the Terrible Disturbances in the County Town of Surrey

THE GUILDFORD GUY RIOTS. Gavin Morgan. Northside Books, Clapham Common. 1992 First Edition ISBN 0952020505 140pp Illustrated Paperback. This copy is in mint unread condition in illustrated card covers as issued. Every November 5, between 1820 and 1865, Guildford shopkeepers closed their businesses early, barricaded their shop fronts and prepared buckets of water to put out fires. The rioters, who called themselves the "Guys", gathered outside the town early in the morning, wearing outlandish costumes and masks. Carrying clubs studded with hobnails, lighted torches and bundles of wood, they then marched into Guildford like an invading army. A witness described their chilling "cry": Their cry will never be forgotten by anyone who ever heard it. It was a thrilling, piercing note of peculiar intensity, and was a warning for all peaceable citizens to be on their guard. For the rioters, Bonfire Night was an opportunity to avenge themselves against fellow citizens who had offended them in any way. Opposite Holy Trinity Church, the Guys built a huge bonfire, piling up gates, railings and doors ripped from the houses of their enemies. Writing in 1912, the folklorist Charlotte Burn described a typical Bonfire Night: Fireworks were let off; the rioters danced round the fire, and went up and down the street, insulting those they met, breaking windows, and doing other damage. It is known that many otherwise peaceable citizens took part in the riots, and more than once a disguised rioter found to his horror that some of the woodwork he was helping to destroy came from his own premises! This reign of terror and vengeance only came to an end when magistrate armed the police with cutlasses and eventually called in a detachment of Lancers to suppress the riots once and for all. Ref J6.…