‘A FANTASTIC wassailing, the best in the ten years it has been running in Bere Ferrers’, those were the words of Brian Lamb from organisers, the Tavy and Tamar Apple Group, about Saturday’s event which saw a torchlight procession, music dancing and feasting, all to aid a good harvest this year.

More than 100 people attended the evening which included entertainment from the Tavy Tars, the Border Morris group and Ferrers Reel. A new introduction this year was the ‘wizard of the orchard’ John Gallagher who headed the traditional wassailing ceremony. Participants were invited to hang toast on the branches of apple trees and pour cider on the tree roots before whistling, shouting and banging drums to frighten away evil spirits.

The start and finish point of the evening was Bere Ferrers Village Hall where parishioners enjoyed pasties and mulled cider and apple juice. A group of scouts from Plymouth also joined the event.

Brian Lamb said: ‘It was a wonderful sight to see people processing down to the orchard with their lighted torches to music.

‘The orchard was a picture with the coloured lights, the moon and the bonfire as we participated in the ancient ceremony of wassailing.’

Picture by Paul Hamlyn — see more by picking up this week’s edition of the Tavistock Times.