Bonfire Night in Morpeth

Bonfire Night 2026 falls on Thursday 5 November, but Morpeth's night is the Sunday before it. On Sunday 1 November, Morpeth Rugby Football Club will light a bonfire at Grange House Field on Mitford Road, and that word is doing more work than you might expect. Almost every other display within reach of the town is now fireworks and nothing else. Morpeth still burns something.

Morpeth RFC Bonfire Night, Sunday 1 November

Gates at Grange House Field open at 5pm, the bonfire is lit at 6pm, and the evening runs on until around 10pm with the clubhouse bar and refreshments open. The rugby club has put this on for more than forty years, which makes it one of the longest-running community events in the town: the club was already billing it as its fortieth annual bonfire back in 2022.

Note the date carefully. The club picks the Sunday nearest to 5 November rather than the night itself, so 2026 lands on Sunday 1 November. An early Sunday evening with the fire lit at six suits families far better than a school-night Thursday, which is almost certainly why it has settled there.

Best for: Best for anyone who wants the traditional version of Bonfire Night: a real fire, a rugby-club bar, and no ticketing app involved.

Take cash, and don't look for a booking link

This is the single most useful thing to know before you set off. There is no online booking at all for the Morpeth RFC bonfire. You pay on the gate, and the club has historically been cash only — so put notes and coins in your pocket before you leave the house rather than assuming a card reader will appear.

On prices, we would rather hedge than guess. Last year the gate was £7 for adults and £5 for under-12s, and those figures had not been republished for 2026 at the time of writing. Treat them as indicative and take a little more than you think you need, particularly if you are feeding people at the clubhouse afterwards.

You can check the club's own listing for the Bonfire Night event closer to the date, and our own Morpeth RFC Bonfire Night listing carries the timings.

Why an actual bonfire has become rare

It is worth saying plainly how unusual this now is. Across the North East, organised events have steadily dropped the fire and kept the fireworks, mostly because a bonfire brings a whole additional layer of permits, stewarding, insurance and site clearance that a firing zone alone does not.

The clearest example is just up the Tyne Valley. Hexham's fireworks night on The Sele dropped its bonfire from 2023 and has been fireworks-only ever since, deliberately quieter and choreographed to music. The big free coastal displays are the same, as are most of the club and school events around Newcastle. If you grew up with the smell of woodsmoke as much as the bangs, Morpeth is genuinely worth the drive.

Getting there, and making a night of it

Grange House Field sits on Mitford Road, roughly fifteen minutes on foot west of the Market Place, so plenty of people simply walk out from town. If you are driving, come early: the road is residential and the crowd all arrives in the same twenty minutes before six.

Coming in from the town centre you pass the top of Oldgate, where the Oldgate Tavern micropub is a sensible pre-bonfire stop, and The Black Bull is close by for something more substantial. If the plan is to eat afterwards, Fish and Chips at No10 on New Market is the obvious end to a cold evening.

If you want fireworks on the 5th itself

Only a handful of displays in the whole region actually fall on Thursday 5 November. The nearest is Ponteland's Friends of PCPS display, with gates at 4.30pm and fireworks at 6pm, tickets £5.50 plus booking fee in advance. Blue Flames at Benton also goes ahead on the night, gates 5.30pm and display 7.30pm — but note it is the exact opposite of Morpeth on ticketing, being online only with no sales on the gate.

The following Saturday, 7 November, gives you Alnwick Community Fireworks at Alnwick Town Juniors FC, gates 6pm and the first launch at 7.30pm, and Hexham's free display at 7pm. Our regional round-up covers the lot: Bonfire Night in the North East.

Going with small children

A 6pm start is the friendliest part of the Morpeth event — you can be there for the fire being lit and home well before bedtime. Bring ear defenders if bangs are an issue, and expect that sparklers and personal fireworks are not welcome at organised displays, including this one. Dogs are much happier left at home. If loud, close-range fireworks are genuinely difficult for someone in your group, Hexham's fireworks-to-music format on 7 November is the gentler option locally.

Know something about this year's Morpeth bonfire that we have missed? Get in touch via our contact page.