THE traditions of old of the practice of ‘logging’ ahead of Bonfire Night seem like a long and distant memory.

Logging was the terminology used by us fellow loggers who would strip every bit of waste from the streets of the town with everything from beds to sideboards to rubber tyres finding their way onto the November 5 pile.

The idea that a child could climb up to the top of a bonfire, go into strangers’ houses to retrieve an unwanted settee or climb to the top of a bonfire seem in this ‘cleansed’ of all danger society to miss the point. The point being that it was fun, just as asking a stranger for a ‘penny for the guy’ was.

To be fair our health and safety first environment, has led for very sensible reasons to organised bonfires where members of the public can be held at a safe distance from the blaze, but the rest is history.

If I am honest, I miss those days because I was out with my mates and we used to guard our bonfires against rival gangs who wanted set light to the lot before October was out.

Look at all these cheeky chappies for 1975 better known as the ‘Kay Street Mob and their blackened faces say it all, but it was such a fun time.

Then we get to the safer environs of 1986, when Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn waves a sparkler at the Last Drop bonfire.

And for every musician, who cares as passionately about musical instruments as many do about the destruction of books, here witness the volunteers at the Edgworth Children’s Home in 1959 hurling pianos provided by Bolton piano dealer Leslie Hunt on to the bonfire

Further back still in 1955, these schoolboys took away discarded seats from a former cinema in Spa Road, which eventually became the ill fated Navada skating rink, to put them on to a bonfire at Tonge Fold.

In the post-Second World War environment of 1952, these children, who lived on or near Russell Street, Bolton, are out seen out collecting for their guy.

Then fast forward to 1988 and a massive crowd gathered to witness, what the Bolton Evening News called ‘the biggest ever firework display in the town’, which was held at Moses Gate Country Park,

By 1998, the health and safety watchers would be having heart palpitations as these youngsters scramble all over the bonfire at the rear of Deane Church Lane, near Design Street, Bolton.

And finally, there is no greater a sight to behold than when a seemingly dark night sky is lit up with starbursts and colour and for one fleeting moment of night into day here at Leverhulme Park.