I HAVE little doubt ’Elf and Safety would have a fit of the vapours now but the one place in Worcester to go on the evening of November 5 used to be The Mortuary on Tallow Hill.

It was a long time since any corpses had been buried there and no one was looking for ghosts, the reason for the pilgrimage was because the wasteland was the site of a massive bonfire.

Bigger, probably, than the ones Worcester Round Table later organised on Pitchcroft and free too.

I remember as a country lad living at Powick in the early 1960s cycling to it through the dark and hooking up with WRGS school mates, hoping, sometimes successfully, to meet Girls Grammar School crushes who had persuaded their parents to give them a lift in from villages like Crowle and Tibberton.

It was where everyone met on Bonfire Night.

Mike Grundy, our legendary historian, once wrote a piece about the Tallow Hill area in which some of the local characters recalled preparations for the bonfire beginning weeks beforehand.

Wood, old railway sleepers and anything and everything that would burn were collected and the pile grew gradually higher and higher until the evening of the lighting.

These days there would likely be fear of some idiot spoiling the fun and putting a match to it beforehand.

Back then, no chance. The culprits would be soon identified and no doubt retribution swift.

In truth, the annual bonfire was the brightest thing that happened in Tallow Hill which was otherwise a somewhat depressing part of Worcester back then. Albeit with a strong community spirit.

Like many areas, only a strong-armed stone’s throw from the city centre, it had been rural with trees and fields.

However much of that changed in 1794 when a huge workhouse known as Worcester Union Workhouse for 200 residents was built at the top of the hill and below that was a large expanse of burial land known as The Mortuary.

It was there, a century-and-a-half later, Guy Fawkes' bonfires would be held.

Talking to Mr Grundy in the 1990s, Bob Whiting, who had spent his childhood on Tallow Hill, said: “The Mortuary used to be surrounded by hedges and some elm trees and a gardener was employed to keep it neat and tidy.

"There were several tombs and gravestones in one part and a kids' park with a cast iron see-saw in another.

“We used to play football on The Mortuary but quite often small areas would cave in, exposing vaults under the tombs or opening up graves where coffin tops and skeletons could be seen.

"In hard winters The Mortuary and the nearby canal would be covered with ice which made them wonderful places for our sledge rides.”

All that, of course, is long gone.

The workhouse site has been modernised with parts occupied by St Paul’s Hostel for the homeless and others by Worcester Central Mosque while The Mortuary land is now covered by a car park and housing.

Ironically, the area is now a smokeless zone.