MORE than 400 years ago this very day, a Halstead postwoman’s ancestor came close to blowing up Parliament.
Claire Fawkes, who lives in Sible Hedingham, doesn’t shout about the fact she is descended from the infamous Guy Fawkes.
Today thousands of bonfires will blaze up and down the country to mark the day, 404 years ago, the Gunpowder Plot was foiled.
Guy Fawkes was part of a secret Roman Catholic group who had plotted to blow up King James and Parliament to end the persecution of English Roman Catholics.
On November 5, 1605, former mercenary Fawkes sat in the cellars below the Palace of Westminster, guarding 20 barrels of gunpowder, awaiting the moment to light the fuse and kill the king and his ministers.
But on the eve of the king’s visit, the plot was uncovered and Guy Fawkes was arrested.
Miss Fawkes, who is Guy Fawkes’s great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter, said: “People tend to take the mickey out of my name.
“It’s so rare and there are various spellings. I don’t usually tell people I’m related.”
FULL REPORT IN THURSDAY'S GAZETTE
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