Hinton St George, Somerset
These days, most people come to Hinton St George because they’ve got a table booked at the pub, the Lord Poulett Arms, or because they want to watch the high jinks on Punky Night (more later). Both perfectly good reasons, and what you should allow a little time for is a stroll around the streets because it’s a pleasant way to spend half an hour or so, looking at the Hamstone cottages and noticing the quaintly named backstreets – Gas Lane, Teapot Lane and Back Lane, with its Victorian almshouses.
Punky Night; it's great fun and worth being around for. It's held on the last Thursday in October and what a spectacle it is! A Punky is a lantern made from a hollowed out mangold, with a candle inside it – like the pumpkins we make for Hallowe’en. The children of the village parade through the streets with their lanterns, and it’s all rather exciting, with a Punky King and Queen, and lots of people in fancy dress. The custom goes back to a time when women from the village went out across the fields with their punky lights, looking for their menfolk who were late home and slightly inebriated after a day at a local fair.
All information correct at the time of writing