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Where to Expect Fireworks Across West Kent, From Tonight Through Bonfire Night Weekend
From tonight's Halloween displays in Rusthall and Tunbridge Wells to Edenbridge's famous bonfire and Leeds Castle's Fireworks Spectacular, here's every organised fireworks display across Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells between now and the weekend after Bonfire Night.
Penenden Heath: The Maidstone Suburb That Was Kent's Court and Gallows for 800 Years
Day 15 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history, and the finale: for 800 years Penenden Heath was where Kent made its laws and hanged those who broke them - six women executed as witches in 1652, an Irish priest hanged and beheaded for treason in 1798, and the last man ever hanged there, in 1830, who turned out to be innocent.
Maidstone Prison: A Century as Kent's Gallows, Where the 'Brides in the Bath' Killer Was Hanged
Day 14 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history: rebuilt in 1819 from local Kentish ragstone, Maidstone Prison was Kent's official execution site for a century - public hangings outside its gate until 1868, then private ones inside until 1930, including the 1915 hanging of George Joseph Smith, the notorious 'Brides in the Bath' murderer.
Oakwood Hospital, Barming: Built for 168 Patients, It Once Held More Than 2,000
Day 13 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history: the Kent County Lunatic Asylum opened at Barming Heath in 1833 built for a few hundred patients, was holding more than 2,000 by the 1940s, survived a fire that killed seven people in 1957, and is now a private housing estate where hundreds of people live inside its converted Victorian wards.
The 1927 Sevenoaks Rail Disaster: Thirteen Killed on the Line Through Dunton Green
Day 12 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history: on 24 August 1927, an express train derailed just past Dunton Green station and ploughed into a bridge, killing thirteen people - still one of Britain's deadliest railway accidents, and one that changed how trains were built.
PC Israel May: The Snodland Murder That's Still Kent Police's Earliest Line-of-Duty Death
Day 11 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history: in the early hours of 24 August 1873, Police Constable Israel May was beaten to death with his own truncheon on a lane outside Snodland - still the earliest entry on Kent Police's own roll of honour, in a case that ended not in a murder conviction but a lesser one.
The Battle of Goudhurst, 1747: When a Kent Village Took On England's Most Violent Smuggling Gang - and Won
Day 10 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history: in April 1747, Goudhurst villagers formed their own militia to defy the Hawkhurst Gang, fought them off outside St Mary's Church, and later saw gang leader Thomas Kingsmill's body hung in chains back in the village that beat him.
Then and Now: Penshurst, the Tiny Kent Village With Its Own Leicester Square
Long before tourists packed into London's Leicester Square, there was another one - a quiet courtyard of old cottages next to Penshurst Place, both named after the same family. Here's the story behind them, with 1890s photos of the village set against how it looks today.
Leeds Castle, 1321: The Siege That Ended With Thirteen Men Hanged From the Battlements
Day 9 of our Halloween countdown of real West Kent dark history: when Lady Badlesmere refused Queen Isabella entry to Leeds Castle and her archers killed six of the royal party, Edward II laid siege for over a week - and when the castle fell, thirteen of the garrison were hanged from its own battlements. Lady Badlesmere became the first recorded woman imprisoned in the Tower of London; her husband was later hanged, drawn and beheaded.