With September preparations are underway for Highbridge and Burnham's annual carnival.

This year the event takes place on Monday, November 9, at 7.30pm with the procession making its way through the main streets of Burnham.

Organisers have been keen to point out to newcomers in the area the origins of the town's carnival which takes place in a season of carnivals in Somerset.

The first events are lost in the mists of time with autumn being a time of fire festivals as winter closes in. Carnivals in Somerset are linked to the events surrounding the Gun Powder Plot and Bonfire night on November 5 with the original carnival in Bridgwater dating back to 1605.

The organisers of Higbridge and Burnham's carnival said: "Guy Fawkes is the character most associated with the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, however the instigator was Jesuit priest Robert Parsons from Nether Stowey, a short distance from Bridgwater.

"Parsons and his colleagues Edmund Campion and Ralph Emerson were Catholics, who wanted to put an end to the Protestant monarchy and parliament of the day, in order to put an end to Catholic persecution. In 1580, they were discovered attempting to garner favour with northern-English based nobility in the English Mission, and were then associated with the failed Spanish Armada of 1588, both plots to replace protestant Elizabeth I of England with catholic Mary Queen of Scots. After the deaths of Campion and Emerson, Parsons continued to plot to restore Catholic power in England, and hence his last ill-fated attempt against parliament and King James I on 5 November 1605. After the failure of the Gunpower Plot, Parsons was key in corresponding with Thomas Morton over the authority of use of St Paul in the creation and implementation of the Jacobean Oath of Allegiance."

These extraordinary events now seem far removed from what is a night of excitement and bright lights in the towns. If you have never been to the carnival then make sure you attend the one in Burnham as it's an event not to be missed.