OXFORD city centre was often the scene of violence as city youths and undergraduates clashed on Bonfire Night.

But celebrations elsewhere to mark Guy Fawkes’s attempt to blow up Parliament usually passed peacefully, as these pictures from the Oxford Mail archives show.

In Picture 1, Scouts and Cubs are seen taking part in a torchlight procession at the popular annual firework display at South Park, Oxford, in 1969.

Picture 2 shows a group of children parading their guy through the streets of Banbury.

Picture 3 shows the winner of the Best Guy competition in Bicester in 1982. The judge was the mayor, George Boyd, who faced a difficult decision with 40 guys to choose from.

He is pictured alongside Thomas Hollis, seven, of Fallowfields, Bicester, who shared his prize, a £5 book token, with his sister, Victoria, nine. Thomas said: “It took us two evenings to make our guy and my sister drew his face. She couldn’t come because she is ill.”

They had the honour of having their guy on top of the bonfire, which Thomas lit with the help of Miss Bicester, Sonia Phillips.

A firework display at Witney in 1976 attracted 4,000 people and raised £400 for charities supported by Witney Round Table and Lions Club. Some of the huge crowd at Newland recreation ground are seen in Picture 4.

Picture 5 dates from 1971 when children at St Barnabas School in Jericho, Oxford, built a 12ft high bonfire on the Cardigan Street recreation ground, only to be told to remove it by council officials, who argued that it was a fire hazard.

There were fears the celebration would have to be cancelled. But it went ahead after a new site was found at the corner of St Barnabas Street and Albert Street. Adrian Marshall is pictured alongside the bonfire before all the material was moved.

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