THERE is no reason why you can’t celebrate Guy Fawkes’ Night, even if you’re in hospital.

Julie Neal, 13, might have had her leg strung up, but that didn’t stop her enjoying a few sparklers. Thankfully, she kept them well away from her bed!

The picture was taken in 1970 when Julie, surrounded by family and friends, was a patient at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre at Headington, Oxford. Beds were pushed out of the wards into the grounds so that patients could enjoy a fireworks display.

That year, families heeded warnings from fire chiefs to take care when lighting bonfires, and Oxford firefighters had one of their quietest Bonfire Nights, with just 12 small rubbish fires.

But if Timothy White, Oxfordshire’s chief fire officer, had had his way, there would have been no bonfires in back gardens. He said it was time people grew up and saw fireworks for what they really were – a menace.

He said: “Fireworks ought only to be approved of at organised displays.”

It appears that firework sales were already on the wane. One in seven Oxford shops licensed to sell fireworks had decided not to do so that year because they were no longer profitable.