How a traditional celebration has descended into a night of mayhem

Fireworks, some of which sound like bombs rather than devices used for entertainment, are sold well ahead of the official date of this strange celebration.

They get into the hands of irresponsible youngsters, who throw them in the streets, parks and gardens specifically to alarm elderly people and animals, or they misuse them in many other ways.

With each passing year, there are vivid accounts of the madness and damage caused by fireworks, and equally there are calls for them to be banned or placed under some kind of more stringent control.

During a recent Bonfire Night escapade near Whitby, a farm building containing machinery and 800 bales of straw was set alight, a fishing boat was destroyed by fire, while at Bedale vandals threw burning embers on to a memorial seat near the parish church.

In the recent past, Bonfire Night used to be a fun event with families arranging their own bonfires, fireworks and feasting and, although this practice developed into community fires with food and organised displays of pyrotechnics, all undertaken with the necessary safeguards and controls, it seems that trouble from youths is never far away.

One wonders why the youngsters of today - and some adults - cannot enjoy themselves without being destructive and offensive.

The reason for all this modern mayhem was the famous Gunpowder Plot of 1605 which, although now part of our national history, remains riddled with uncertainties about its true purpose and whether or not its alleged perpetrators were genuinely guilty of treason.

Next year will mark its fourth centenary and one can only wonder what form those celebrations will take.

The man whose name is forever associated with the Gunpowder Plot is Guido or Guy Fawkes, who was born in York in 1570. He was not the leader of the plotters, but it was he who was supposedly caught in a storeroom under the Houses of Parliament on November 4, 1605.

Hidden beneath piles of firewood were 36 barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was tortured for two whole days, after which he admitted that he and others were involved in a plot to blow up Parliament.

Torture of other conspirators resulted in false confessions, which led to the execution of at least two entirely innocent Jesuit priests.

The plot arose from the awful persecution of Catholics under Elizabeth I. She had died in 1603 and England's Catholics were hoping for a better future under James I, but when that did not happen it was alleged that a band of zealots hatched a plot to kill the king.

There is a theory that it was all a Government plan to discredit the Catholic aristocracy of the time and that Parliament was always aware of the supposed plot, but it resulted in two centuries of further severe persecution of Catholics.

It was King James who ordered the country to celebrate his deliverance on November 5, but the first record of an effigy of Fawkes being burnt did not occur until 1806, 200 years afterwards.

An old verse beginning "Remember, remember the fifth of November" includes the words that it "should never be forgot", but if the current irresponsible behaviour of louts continues Bonfire Night may follow many other former celebrations by being banned because of the unruly behaviour it constantly generates.

That might not be a bad thing.

A pen can mean many things, such as something to write with, an enclosure of some kind (particularly for livestock), part of a submarine, a female swan or even a prison.

In the Yorkshire Dales, however, it means something quite different, although I should mention that pendlewhew is an old dialect name for the male wigeon. Not many people know that.

In the Dales, however, a pen is mightier than most of the things which surround it because it refers to a very large hill. Think of Penyghent and Penhill in the Dales, and you might even consider Pendle Hill on the wrong side of the Pennines in Lancashire - then think again about the Pennines.

In every case, the prefix 'pen' indicates a hill, a mound, a height, a summit or a head. It is quite possible these names have distant links with the old Norse language.

The precise reason for the names of our individual Pennine peaks is often rather obscure, although some experts believe Penyghent, one of the famous Three Peaks, has a very strong link with Wales, particularly as lots of Welsh place names start with the prefix Pen-y, such as Pen-y-Bont, Pen-y-Cloddiau, Pen-y-Pas and others.

In addition, many Welsh place names also begin with just Pen and one theory is that Penyghent means "hill of the wind."

Interestingly enough, my Welsh-English dictionary shows that gwynt is the Welsh for wind, so it is not difficult to see how the passage of time has produced this mountain's name.

If Pen means hill, however, then Penhill in Wensleydale could curiously mean hill-hill. In fact, Pendle in Lancashire is also a corruption of Penhill, so it is not difficult to see why the entire backbone of England was called the Pennines. It contains lots of pens.

The prefix occurs elsewhere in England, such as Penruddock, Penrith, Pendlebury and Pendleton, although it is not so prevalent in Scotland.

So where did Whernside, another of the Three Peaks, get its name? It is very likely it stems from old English cwoern, now spelt as quern.

A quern was a small and very basic handmill used for grinding corn or spices and it was made from the appropriately-named millstone grit found on the slopes of Whernside. That seems a rather simple explanation, which means it could be true.

The third of the famous peaks, Ingleborough - and perhaps Ingleton - may be named after an ancient fort called Ingold, whose ramparts may still be seen on the flat summit of this very prominent block of land.

However, there may be other possibilities because the prefix Ingle appears in places not associated with that old fort.

For example, there is Ingleby Arncliffe, Ingleby Barwick and Ingleby Greenhow near Stokesley and a defunct village called Inglethwaite which was near Easingwold.

In these cases, Ingle comes from an old word Engle, which means village of the English.

In the case of Ingleborough, another suggestion is that the name comes from an old word meaning fire because beacons were once lit on this peak. So Ingleborough might mean "hill of fire", although the hill was formerly known as Ingleborrow.

If these names are puzzling, you could always attempt the Three Peaks Walk to see if that strenuous outing provides further hints.

Following my notes about the Darnton Trod (D&S, October 8), a Yarm reader refers to The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington written by W Hylton Dyer Longstaff, PSA.

I do not possess a copy of this title, nor have I had an opportunity to read it, but it says that to take the Darnton Trod is to adopt desperate measures to avoid the consequences of one's actions, for example to flee the country to avoid debt or to escape conviction for a crime. It seems the author understood that, in the case of Darlington, it referred to the road to London, but apparently there were other paths in the locality which bore the name Darnton Trod.

One led from Newton Ketton to Darlington, but it seems the term was also used for paths in Westmoreland and Cumberland.

By taking the Darnton Trod, therefore, it appears one was liable to get into the company of rogues and villains!