The carrying of burning tar barrels is an Ottery St Mary (Devon) tradition which takes place on November 5th each year. The barrels are soaked in tar over the previous year and then lit outside each of the pubs in Ottery in turn. They are then hoisted up onto local people's backs and carried back and forth outside the pub or nearby. The crowd which gathers surges madly as they run to get out of the way of the "barrel rollers." It can be quite scary as one is carried along by the crowd or as the flaming barrel sweeps by rather closely. http://www.tarbarrels.co.uk/
	They start small at 5:30 am with cannon fire, with smaller "Boys' barrels" followed by medium size "Youths' and Ladies' barrels" but by dusk have already started on some of the bigger "Mens'" barrels. The flames are fierce, though die down as the barrel is carried - it gets put down to let them reignite. You have to jump out of the way of the drop. The men then tussle to get to carry the barrel next.
	For a shorty, like me, it's hard to see, but I still managed to get some good photos, though some have people in the way.
	We arrived when they were onto the second mens' barrel - at the Plume of Feathers, but I didn't get any photos. Here is the third, in the Square, for the London Inn. The square is the biggest space they use and the eighth and nineth (the biggest) barrels can only be done here, for manoeuvring space.
	All the pubs are open for business for the entire event, and the local Real Ale Brewery and other places have stalls. It's an excuse to get very drunk for some local students.
	He turned around and passed very close - I was in the front row trying to get away, not take photos.
	This gives a very good impression of the size of some of the early evening barrels.
	The fourth barrel was for the Five Bells and was outside the fire station. I didn't try to photograph this one as I was quite far back.
	This, and the former were attempts to get a shot of the Ladies' barrels and the type of crowd it attracts, but it didn't work very well.
	We skipped barrel 5 and went up to Jean-Claude's house. Barrel 6 was to go along his street. While the others stood outside, I went up to his upstairs window to get a better view and maybe some better pictures.
	The smoke is fairly acrid, especially when it's right outside your window.
	Holding it end up so it bursts back into flame
	I'm leaving the bad shots in too - it was quite hard to get photos of a moving target in the dark.
	Dropped
	If you enlarge this picture (click on it), you can see it's beginning to disintegrate as the strips of wood burn through at the edges
	A nice view of the glowing interior
	Dropped and it's fallen to bits.