What is an Effigy? Well, a correct liturate meaning is a representation or image of someone or something. Later, it also refers to people disliked, and if you burn it or whatever, you do in public, you do it "in effigy". The idea it`s only for disliked people is a huge mistake, but it often does take that meaning.
To bonfire Boyes, an Effigy is a representation that is stuffed full of fireworks and blown up as a set piece, normally to end the nights events.
Since the term has a few meanings, it can be tricky to find out about old effigies. Currently, the oldest known Battle Effigy was in 1870 and was of a local murderer who made the news. This was a life-size likeness, like a guy, of the person and it was carried down the street on the procession. At the end of events, it was hung on a gibbet, stuffed full of fireworks and lit to end off the night. While Todays effigies are much bigger, this is basically the same thing. Some `non-set piece` effigies were used in them days, as they were just the likeness of a person that was carried down and thrown on the fire, but an Effigy is the set piece. For a while, Effigies became `tableau`, mostly just a large board with an image on it, alone with fireworks, but that was still basically the same thing. In the 70s, they became more what we know today, as a 3D large Papier-mâché, wire and wood sculptures. The theme for these Effigies range from Local topics to world topics, films or some bonfire related topics.
 Giant Apple- 1980 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £555 In 1980, large amounts of what were deemed `Sub-standard` by the Apple action Committee, French Golden Delicious apples flooded the British market and lead to a major hit on sales and prices of English apples. This lead to reforming the Apple and Pear Development Council, who declared the 12th October as Apple Day and the first was held in 1980 (not to be confused with World Apple Day, first held in 1990, in October). One question asked by Mr. Alfred Dubs (Later Baron) to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mr. Peter Walker, on a meeting in the house of Commons (19th June 1980) was `Does not the Minister have a greater responsibility to protect the British apple industry from subsidised French imports, which are neither golden nor delicious? They are plastic and tasteless.`, to which Mr. Walker replied `I have no objection to that description of the product concerned. I share the hon. Gentleman`s view about the superior quality of the British apple. |
 Prince Charles & Lady Diana`s Wedding - 1981 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £566 In 1981, Prince Charles Windsor married Lady Diana Spencer in St Pauls` Cathedral, London. |
 Guy Fawkes - 1982 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £700 Generic Guy Fawkes Effigy |
 Welcome to 1066 Country - 1983 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £1054 Done to highlight Battle as the Heart of `1066 Country` |
 Margaret Thatcher & Arthur Scargill - 1984 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £944 After Coal mining had been nationalised by Clement Attlee`s Labour Government and managed by the National Coal Board, Mines had to be heavily subsidised. The Conservative government decided to close down many of the mines running at a major lost, which created a backlash from the National Union of Mineworkers, headed by Arthur Scargill. This put him in a direct battle against the current Prime Minster, Margaret Thatcher |
 Ian Botham - 1985 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £1300 After becoming a famous name in 1981, Ian Botham was on the England team which beat Australia in the 1985 Ashes at the Oval, smashing his first ball over the bowlers head and right into the pavilion. Meanwhile, he publicity admitted smoking cannabis and was tried at Scunthorpe magistrates court, leading to a hundred pound fine and 63 day ban from playing. |
 Guy Fawkes - 1986 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £1216 Generic Guy Fawkes done as part of the believed `300 years` of Battel Bonfire. |
 Ronald Reagan - 1987 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £? In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan ran into minor trouble. A report on his handling of the Iran-Contra affair showed that his Passive Management style had allowed his staff to mislead him about facts and the trade of arms to Iran in exchange for hostages held in the Lebanon and allowed the pursuit of a secret war against the Nicaraguan government. In March, Reagan publicly admit it was a mistake. Due to pressure from his advisers and his wife, he fired chief of Staff, Donald Regan for his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair and other matters, In June, Reagan gave which is felt to be his most well known speech, `Mr Gorbachev, Tear down this wall`, in relation to the Berlin Wall. Later, in December , Both Reagan and Soviet Premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which eliminated 4% of the superpower`s Nuclear Arsenals and was the first treaty between the US and Soviet Union to destroy some of the nuclear weapons. |
 Letter to Guy Fawkes in Parliament - 1988 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £1400 In 1988, Postal workers held their first national strike in 17 years after they walked out on strike over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East. As a result, on the 31st of August, members of the Union of Communications workers walked out in protest and planned for a 24-hour stoppage. However, due to this strike, Royal Mail used temporary workers to clear the backlog of undelivered mail, this lead the union strikers to keep striking. By the 5th of September, it had grown and spread throughout the British mainland to a point where no Mail was being delivered. Because of this, and in order to ease the backlog, bosses of Royal Mail placed an embargo on delivery of all overseas mail. During Strikes, there were minor violent actions with three men being arrested in Liverpool. On the 13th September, union representatives came to a deal with Royal Mail Managers and ended the strike. By the end, about 150 Million undelivered letters and parcels had built up and mail deliveries remained unreliable for several weeks afterwards. |
 Batman - 1989 Designer - Max Blackman & Peter Thomsett Street Collection - £1500 After the success of his film `Beetlejuice`, |
 Saddam Hussein [Who`s Sane?] - 1990 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £? When Saddam Hussein Invaded Kuwait, Edward `Ted` Heath went to Baghdad in order to attempt to negotiate the release of some British aircraft passengers taken hostage. At the same time, due to the amount of oil fields in the area, there were major fears that the price of oil would sky rocket. These led to the first gulf war in August of 1990. It was believed that this effigy would create an outcry, but in the end, nothing happened |
 John Major & Neil Kinnock- 1991 Designer - Max Blackman Street Collection - £2000 After replacing Mararget Thatcher without an election, John Major was holding out until improvements to the UK economy despite Neil Kinnock`s calls for an immediate Election. When this election did happen, John Major won. |
 Nigal Mansell- 1992 Designer - Robert Staermose Street Collection - £1900 Seen as his finest Season, Grand Prix racer, Nigel Mansell started the season with 5 victories in a row, a record held until 2004, and became the most successful British driver to date with 28 British Grand Prix wins. This Effigy had the result in a letter of complaint to the local newspapers about how much in bad taste a reader felt this was. |
 Dinosaur from Jurassic Park- 1993 Designer - Robert Staermose Street Collection - £2606 Debatably loosely based on the novel by Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg directed the smash hit `Jurassic Park`, becoming the highest grossing feature film at the time with it`s landmark use of computer effects mixed with animatronics to create the dinosaurs. |
 The Terminator- 1994 Designer - Robert Staermose Street Collection - £? Infomation to come |
 French Nuclear Protester- 1995 Designer - Robert Staermose Street Collection - £2503 France is known as one of the main countries with nuclear weapons and from 1966 to 1996, they carried out a total of 193 Nuclear `tests` in the pacific ocean. In 1995, the then president, Jacques Chirac, decided to run a test series at Mururoa Atoll, knowing that a ban on comprehensive nuclear tests was to be signed a year later. This caused worldwide protests and an embargo on French products. |
 Mad Cow [B.S.E.]- 1996 Designer - Robert Staermose Street Collection - £2292 Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (B.S.E. Or Mad Cows disease) had a major break out in the UK in 1996 which lead to a ban on exports of any British Beef, despite then PM, John Major, attempting to get the ban lifted. It was finally removed in 2006. This was the first year away from the Abbey Green, and it was held on the Battle Recreation ground) |
 Tinky Winky from Teletubbies- 1997 Designer - Robert Staermose Street Collection - £? While the controversy is often stated as happening in 1999, the year the Teletubbies preschool show launched, people decided that a male character carrying a bag that looked like a `handbag` was a sexual reference and was secretly promoting homosexuality via their show. Later on, people decided that `purple` was also a reference as it was a gay pride colour, and his triangle antenna was based on the gay pride `triangle` symbol. Please note, the Bag is not shown in image. This was also our first year on the Battlefield. |
 Guy Fawkes- 1998 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £2300 Generic Guy Fawkes Effigy |
 Darth Maul from Star Wars [The Phantom Menace]- 1999 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £2870.72 Director George Lucas successfully attempted to relaunch his Star Wars film series with a prequel `Episode One: The Phantom Menace`. Despite many complaints, this was a hit and lead to a new wave of Star Wars, with new TV shows, Films, Toys and games. |