London and Lights – Part II, The Guildford Torchlight Procession

With London quickly receding into the distance behind us, and the sun sinking below the horizon ahead, it would usually be safe to assume the day was coming to an end.  In fact, the main event was still to come, after a quick trip to Anderton’s of course.

Having extracted Seb from Anderton’s, in part due to it closing, we headed off for Guildford high street ready for the torchlight procession. I’ve been to this once before, when I was studying for my masters at Surrey Uni, and had thoroughly enjoyed it then so now if I’m anywhere near Guildford come Bonfire Night this is my go-to event.

First things first, we needed some torches – not much a torchlight parade without those. Having obtained torches, and waited for the cue, we lit them and Guildford high street was suddenly bathed in a stunning glow.

The effect of having, somewhere in the region of, 1500 torches lit along a high street is something to behold. I would try and describe scenes that would conjure images of a smokey, angry orange glow anchored by the press of a sea of bodies but thankfully I don’t have to as I took lots of photos.

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The procession slowly made its way up the high street, past London Road station, and on to Stoke Park where the fun fair and fireworks awaited.

I did take some photos of the fireworks but without a tripod it’s a fairly optimistic exercise and I didn’t get anything worth sharing. For photos of fireworks I’ll point you in the direction of Bonfire Night 2017 where there was noticeably less processing taking place and more hanging around getting ready and eating burgers.

If you’re in the area next year I would certainly recommend a visit, hopefully I’ll be around Guildford then, in which case, I’ll see you there.

Doug