THE night skies around Oxfordshire were sparked into life over the weekend with a series of firework displays.

The Curbridge Social Club staged its annual bonfire celebrations on Saturday night at Witney United Football Club, in Downs Road.

A 10-minute display was set off by members of the social club and was set to music around the theme of 40 years since the first landing on the moon, which included classic tunes from Star Trek.

More than 1,500 people turned out for the display, a fancy dress competition and the lighting of a bonfire.

Organiser Paul Kelly, the club’s treasurer, said: “It went well. We were extremely lucky with the weather, we could not have got a more perfect night for fireworks.

“About 25 children dressed up in Halloween costumes and the winner lit the bonfire.”

The club has run the event for more than 10 years, starting out in the garden of the former Merry Horn pub.

Mr Kelly, 50, said: “We’re a little village social club, we do trips to the seaside. We thought we would do a fireworks display and it grew from there. We’re now one of the biggest in Witney.”

On the same evening, another display took place in the grounds of the Sue Ryder Care Home, in Nettlebed.

It featured more than £4,000 of fireworks, along with numerous stalls, a pig roast, soup and mulled wine.

Other displays in the area included Standlake Arena’s Big Bang and Bonfire Meeting at its race track yesterday.

Further displays are taking place around the county on Thursday night, November 5, the date Bonfire Night is traditionally celebrated, to mark the foiling in 1605 of the Gunpowder Plot, to kill King James I by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament.

For details of other fireworks displays and bonfires around the county this week, see oxfordmail.co.uk/events