Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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One of the maddest, most spectacular folk traditions of the British Isles is the annual burning of the tar barrels in Ottery St Mary in Devon. They burn barrels from 4pm to midnight, starting with small ones for kids, and progressing to larger and larger barrels. The biggest one is lifted at midnight, and is the last one in this video. The chaps who lift the barrels are called barrellers; they have to be local, born and bred, and they begin lifting running the tar barrels at the age of seven!

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