Every year on Bonfire Night, Ottery St Mary sets its streets alight with the tradition of carrying flaming tar barrels through the town, a ritual thought to have begun after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. 

What follows is a night washed in molten orange and soot. The darkness becomes a tapestry of burning copper and brass russet, explosions of embers and masses of fleeing bodies as barrels are driven through crowds of thousands. Carved into the identity of the town, it’s chaotic, beautiful and entirely its own world of fire and experience.