We’re a nation not adverse to some odd traditions. Risking broken bones and dislocated joints to chase wheels of cheese down hills or welcoming New Year with a dip in the North Sea. A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to survive witnessing one such tradition, the famous Tar Barrels of Ottery St Mary.
The premise is simple – take a large wooden barrel, stuff it with material dipped in tar, set it on fire then run it round a small village on the shoulders of the local inhabitants, doing your best to avoid burning the spectators. Importantly, only those born in Ottery St Mary are allowed to participate, though I’m not sure they’d have too many people signing up even if this wasn’t the case. How the tradition was established is unknown but presumably it was a rite of passage that marked the transition from boyhood to manhood.
"Well, son, it’s time to become a man. Here’s a flaming barrel – get running."
Any forward-thinking protests about the activity clearly never gathered sufficient support and so it is that the tradition still happens every year on the 5th November.
We arrived around 9pm so we’d already missed the children’s event (apparently the youngest victim/entrant was 11) and the women’s event but we were just in time for the men’s. The narrow streets of this small village were swollen with 27,000 people, wrapped up against the November night. iPhones, cameras and video cameras were all held aloft, trying to capture images of the action happening in the distance.
The imminent arrival of a barrel is marked by a plume of thick black smoke blotting out the street lights and a cheer from the crowd that radiates out like ripples in a pond. Then, suddenly, flames start dancing forward and the crowd does its best to part to allow the barrel and its carrier through. There are no lines to stand behind, no safe distance at which to witness the event – it’s a simple case of getting out of the way as much as the throngs of people behind you will allow. In a time when Health & Safety is king, how an event like this takes place is astonishing. The advice to the crowd coming through the PA was brief – ‘Lean back to allow the barrel through and please don’t sit on people’s shoulders’; the officials in their fluorescent jackets were not there for crowd safety but to ensure that the barrels carried sufficient fuel to remain balls of fire for as long as possible. It’s a mad and crazy (and utterly dangerous) tradition but without doubt the most memorable celebration of the 5th November. If you ever get the chance to go, do - before the Health & Safety bods get their fun-sapping hands on it.
Will Cole - Senior Activity Director
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