North Tawton villagers enjoy a jolly carnival rumbelow

The Carnival Queen is crowned and schoolchildren pose as clowns, John Bull, Cherry Blossom Boot Polish, Henry VIII, Little Bo Peep, Old Mother Hubbard, a white rabbit and an Air Raid Precautions' warden in a metal barrel! The parade wends its way, Jack and Jill go up the hill and a marching brass band comes tumbling after. A Home from the Cape float is followed by a Zulu one, a satirical reference to the 1906 Zulu rebellion.

The small town may be located on the site of a druidic sanctuary before the Romans descended at Newline Mill. Agriculture and the woollen industry provide employment but the last mill closes in 1930. Court Green in the village was the home from 1961 of poets Ted Hughes and for a short time his wife, Sylvia Plath as depicted in the film Sylvia (2003). Dr William Budd is born here and discovers typhoid fever is spread contagiously through contaminated drinking water. It is the location for Jennifer Saunder's Jam and Jerusalem about the Women's Guild.