Ottery St Mary Tar Barrels

Ottery St Mary is the last town in England still carrying full-size, lit tar barrels on the shoulders of local participants through its streets each November, a tradition open only to those born in the town or who own a business there, likely connected to the 1605 Gunpowder Plot though its exact origin remains genuinely uncertain.

Ottery St Mary keeps a version of Bonfire Night tradition that has died out everywhere else it was once practiced: rather than rolling burning tar barrels along the ground, as other West Country towns and villages once did as part of the same broad regional custom, Ottery is now the only town in the country where participants carry full-size, lit tar barrels on their shoulders through the streets.