BONFIRE Night went with a bang across West Dorset.

Thousands of people turned out to events in Bridport, Beaminster and Lyme Regis to celebrate the festivities.

There was a record crowd of more than 5,000 people at the firework event in Lyme Regis on Saturday.

The Mayor, Councillor Michaela Ellis, accompanied by consort, Alan Ellis, then lit a bonfire on the beach which, within minutes, sent flames soaring into the night sky.

Earlier in the day members of the Football Club helped to build the bonfire using wood donated by Lyme residents and Travis Perkins. Within three hours a huge pile of wood was carefully constructed to enable the fire to burn. Operations Manager, Matt Adamson-Drage, drove the town council lorry around the town collecting the donated wood. Early the following morning members of the gig club and the Lifeboat Guild cleared the beach and the Cobb and by 10am it was difficult to see where the bonfire and fireworks had been.

Some of the last remaining ducks from the carnival took pride of place on top of the bonfire.

Town Crier, Alan Vian, said: “It was amazing to see so many people in Lyme throughout the day and enjoying the day as a family. People had come from many other towns to enjoy the atmosphere in the November sunshine. We are immensely grateful to the members of the football club, the gig club and other volunteers for all their help with the bonfire. Our thanks must also go to Matt from the Town Council who supported the event by collecting the wood and for Darren who stayed on through the evening to clear away the rubbish.

“Travis Perkins supplied the fencing around the bonfire. With such community involvement events like this can take place. The collection totalled over £4,400 which will be used to fund next year’s bonfire night on November 3, 2018. It was another great night in Lyme.”