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 Street Camera (Big Brother)- 2000 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £3,000 Taking reference from George Orwell`s Novel, `Nineteen Eighty-Four`, where the Ingsoc Party, in charge of Oceania, rules with an iron fist and Cameras everywhere keeping everyone under complete surveillance, under the possible guise of `Big Brother`. This reference was taken by Dutch (and later various world wide) semi-reality show `Big Brother`. At the same time as it was raising to fame, Battle Town Council was installing new security cameras around Battle Town. |
 Football (England 5 - Germany 1) - 2001 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £3,126 While the England football team had met the Germany football team fairly often, the English side had last beaten Germany in a world Cup match in 1966. After years of losing to them, England finally beat them again in 2001 with a score of 5-1 at the Olympiastadion in Munich. |
 Uncle Sam - 2002 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £2,600 Despite most of the country being against them, Great British PM Tony Blair followed US President George W. Bush into a war with Iraq which was still running into 2011, before going into a cold war which sparks up between the USA and Iraq. A year before, in 2002, the build up was growing as George W. Bush was getting geared up to attack with Blair giving support. |
 Saruman the White [Lord of the Rings] - 2003 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £5,023 Done to highlight the final film in Peter Jackson`s version of Lord of the Rings Saga |
 R.I.P. Free Speech - 2004 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £5,240.09 After Firle Bonfire society got into trouble with their local event having a comment on a local issue to which they used their freedom of Free Speech, this was created as a comment on how the Freedom of Speech seemed to have died, and in fact, this in itself caused a bit of an outcry. However as it went ahead, it showed Free Speech was in fact, perfectly fine. |
 The Plot - In fireworks - 2005 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £5,575.44 2005 marked 400 years since the 1605 Gunpowder plot against parliment. This was created to feature the heads of the main members of the conspirators plot, with the most famous one, Guy Fawkes, in front. |
 Tony Blair & Gordon Brown [Punch and Judy Show] - 2006 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £5,423.50 With the current Labour government doing the normal internal power struggle amidst failing support, then Leader Tony Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown were putting on a very public Punch and Judy show which fighting for leadership of the party. This ended with Tony Blair being `Ousted` as Prime Minster and Party leader, to be replaced by Gordon Brown. |
 Housing Development in Battle - 2007 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £5,816.05 As part of the Blackfriars development Proposals, an approx 270 new houses were planned at Battle, much to the dislike of many of the town folks and some councillors. Not only was it feared it would make the high street congestion, which can be bad at times, even worse, but things turned worse when the plans were changed from `no more than 204` houses to 290, which created more dislike. Local councillors also stated that if that many new houses were built, they would require a second primary school, something which Rother District Council didn`t co-operate with. At the same time, the new `Wheelie` bin plan came into force, making Hundreds of people initially unhappy with what was deemed as `ugly` bins being forced into their gardens. |
 Sarah Palin - 2008 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £3,292.71 American Presidential elections of 2008 had a lot more fuss then normal when two main front runners came to the head, Barak Obama and Sarah Palin, despite Palin only being in the running as Vice President, and John McCain being the parties nominee for President against Obama. |
 Swine Flu - 2009 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £4,844.42 In 2009, the Second H1N1 Influenza Pandemic happened (the first being in 1918). Commonly known as `Swine Flu`, this version of H1N1 was unlike the previously strains as it was not mostly infecting adults older then 60, as was the characteristic feature of the 1918 pandemic. Even Previously healthy people could contact it. The Outbreak is believed to have started off in Veracruz, Mexico, however the Mexican Government failed to contain the virus and it spread globally. By November of 2009, the Number of cases tapered off with the end of the pandemic being announced officially in August 2010. Despite the name, Swine flu had no connection with Pork or Pork based Products, though the strain it was derived from, had lived in pigs. |
 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain - 2010 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £4,060.46 During the summer and autumn of 1940, the German Air Force (the Luftwaffe) waged an air campaign to try and gain superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fighter Command. The Campaign was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by Aerial forces and to date, is the largest aerial bombing campaign. At first, the targets shipping convoys and centres, within a month, they changed to targeting RAF airfields and infrastructures, later attacking Aircraft Factories, ground infrastructures before targeting political areas and using terror tactics. Germany failed to achieve its objectives and is seen as the first major defeat and a major turning point in the second world war. |
 Ad-buse of the World- 2011 Designer - Caitlin Mascord Street Collection - £5,870.45 While there was always a lot of debate about some of the stories and information in the News of the World newspaper, in 2005 to 2007, investigations into phone hacking activities were done. At the time, it was believed to be limited to celebrities, politicians and members of the Royal Family, but in July 2011, it was found that the phones of a murdered schoolgirl, relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of the 7/7 London Bombings were also hacked. As more and more scandals broke, and members of the staff were arrested, the Newspaper printed their final issue and stopped printing. In other news, 2011 marked 90 years of the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, 20 years since the first game appearance of a popular Blue Hedgehog and a Local Battle resident won £17.7 Million on the Lotto Jackpot. |
 Boris Johnson- 2012 Designer - Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £2,151.13 Boris Johnson came under some criticism when, as London Mayor, he was shown to be very much against the plans for a New runway at Heathrow, against the view of his party, But he was backing a new airport to be build in the Thames Estuary, nicknamed `Boris Island`. Many saw this as part of his `long term` plan to become party head and Prime Minister, but was officially denied as he was said to have no interest in the position. |
 A `Bonfire` Saxon on the Battle Field- 2013 Designer - Hannah & Jason Griffiths Street Collection - £2,634.25 In response to the damage caused on the Abbey Battlefield by the Re-enactment in 2012, the Field and a few meters of soil was wasted, which lead to the field being unusable for some time. A local amateur historian tried again with his claims about the real site of the Battle of Hastings and tried to get English Heritage to rescind the protective status. After a Time Team investigation proved nothing either way, nothing was done about this status. |
 Olaf [Frozen] 2014 Designer - Jason Griffiths & Mark Oldroyd Street Collection - £3,300 In 2013, Disney finally released there long awaited Film based on "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Anderson. However, despite the original intent, the film, renamed `Frozen` was turned into a much happier affair as the Disney staff felt the original classic was too dark a story for a childrens film. It was also decided to make the Snow Queen into more of a Heroic then a villain and to scrap all hand drawn work done at various stages in favour of CGI. The Film was a huge hit in the cinema`s and when it was released for home release in early 2014. The Effigy also parodied the often parodied and quoted song `Let it go` from the Film, with the lines `Let it blow` and `Let it gone`. |
 Volkswagen T2 Camper van with David Cameron- 2015 Designer - Jason Griffiths Street Collection - £3,618.33 In 2011, the European Commission`s joint research centre published a report which found that all tested diesel vehicles emited a far higher amount of dangerous emessions then was on the Euro 3-5 Emission limit. In 2014, the ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation) did their own study and found while the BMW X5 had no issues, there were emission discrepancies on the two Volkswagen diesel vechicles, the Passat and the Jetta. Later in 2014, an American group of Scientists did some tests on the same cars and found the BMW at or below standard levels, but the Jetta and Passat were far above level limits for both European and U.S. Standards. It also seamed some software had been tweaked on the emission controls. In September of 2015, the EPA issed a notice of Violation to the Volkswagen Group alleging that about 480,000 VW and Audi automobiles with the 2-litre TDI engine sold between 2009 and 2015 had specially written engine management firmware which allowed better fuel economy but emitted up to 40 times more nitrogen oxies than allowed by law. While the Volkswagen group had insisted it was mere technical glitches since 2014, a scandal broke and when presented with evidence and the EPA withholding approval for the 2016 Volkswagen and Audi Diesel models, finally acknowledged that they had manipulated the emision tests. CEO Martain Winterkorn, who was in charge since 2008, admitted they have broken the trust of the customers and the public and it was a mistake of a few people. Despite resisting calls to step down, he finally did on the 23rd of September 2015. VW America CEO Michael Horn repiled that "We`ve totally screwed up" and said that he believed the people who allowed this to happen and made the decision to install the software had acted criminally and must be held personally acountable. It was later claimed that VW`s top management had been aware of the software`s use since 2007, and Bosch, who provided the software for testing, warned VW that it would be illgeal to use the software in order to avoid emissions compliance during normal Driving. At the end of September, VW announced planns to refit up to 11 million vechicles affected, which include 5 million Vws, 2.1 million Audis, 1.2 million Skoda and 700,000 SEAT. On the 3rd November, it was revealed that CO2 emissions and fuel consumtion figures were also affected which also affected some petrol models. Meanwhile yet more news come out explaining come more details of David Cameron`s publicly admitted `wild days` at Eton colleage, in the form Lord Ashcroft`s heavily criticized book `Call me Dave`, which has been condemned by many for featuring factual errors and lack of evidence in an effort to tarnish David Cameron`s reputation due to declining Ashcroft for a significant position in government. However, it appeared to have helped make someone seen as a bland `John Mayor` type into what is seen as a more interesting person. |
 1066 950th Anniversary- 2016 Designer - ? Street Collection - £3,872.51 Celebrating the 950th Anniversary of the battle of 1066 |
 ?- 2017 Designer - ? Street Collection - £3,684.68 |
 Teresa May & Boris Johnson- 2018 Designer - ? Street Collection - £2,997.07 ? |
 ?- 2019 Designer - ? Street Collection - £2,175.73 ? |