The Totnes Orange Races and Other Quirky South Hams Festivals

Among the genuinely strange things you can witness in Devon, the Totnes Orange Races deserve a permanent place on the list. Every August, a small crowd gathers at the top of Fore Street, oranges are produced, and competitors charge down the historic high street chasing their fruit toward the river. The race commemorates an episode of Tudor clumsiness involving Sir Francis Drake, and it is run by the Totnes Elizabethan Society as part of the same broader programme that brings you the Tuesday Charter Market. This is a quick guide to the Orange Races and a few other characterful South Hams events worth catching.

The legend behind the races

The story goes that Sir Francis Drake, who knew Totnes well, was walking down Fore Street in the 1580s when he collided with a delivery boy carrying a cart of oranges. Oranges were exotic and expensive in Tudor England, and the boy’s cart spilled its valuable cargo all over the steep cobbled street. Children chased the fruit down the hill, scooping up whatever they could grab. The story is almost certainly apocryphal, but it gives the race its hook, and the Elizabethan Society have been re-enacting the scattering since the mid-20th century.

What actually happens on race day

Race day is usually a Tuesday in mid to late August, often coinciding with the regular Charter Market. The whole of Fore Street is closed to traffic for the afternoon. Competitors gather at the top, near the East Gate arch, and are sent off in a series of heats by age category: under-fives, under-tens, teenagers, adults, and a special heat for civic dignitaries that has been won at least once by a sitting mayor in full robes.

The rules are simple. You cannot carry the orange, you must propel it down Fore Street, and the first to cross the finish line at the foot of the hill wins. In practice this means a chaotic mix of rolling, kicking, dribbling and one famous technique known locally as the dive-and-shove. Oranges go everywhere, spectators laugh, traders in Tudor costume keep score, and there is usually a town crier announcing winners. Prizes are modest. The bragging rights are not.

Entry is free and informal. If you turn up on the morning, you can sign up at the Elizabethan Society’s table in the Civic Square. The races usually start at 2pm and run for a couple of hours. Bring an orange if you want to compete, although spares are always available.

The other quirky South Hams festivals

If you enjoy the Orange Races, the South Hams calendar has plenty more in a similar vein.

Dartmouth Royal Regatta (late August) is the grand old event on the coast: three days of yacht racing, air displays by the Red Arrows, fireworks over the harbour, and a fair on the embankment. It is bigger than the Orange Races by a wide margin, but it has the same flavour of a town doing its own tradition with full conviction.

Kingsbridge Fair Week (late July) carries on a charter fair tradition that dates from 1219. The town centre fills with stalls, the local pubs spill onto the pavements, and there is a torchlit procession on the final night.

Salcombe Town Regatta (mid-August) features sailing races, a raft race that is mostly an excuse for very wet costumes, and a famous greasy pole competition over the harbour.

Totnes Carnival (late August or early September) is a hometown affair with a procession of floats through the streets, a fancy dress competition, and a fireworks display from the meadows below the castle. It is the kind of carnival where you might recognise half the people on the floats.

Powderham Castle Christmas Fair (late November), just over the border but very much in the regional rotation, is the South West’s biggest country house Christmas market and pulls in artisan producers from across the region.

Tips for visiting festival days

• Park out of town. Totnes town-centre parking is at a premium on event days; the long-stay at Steamer Quay is a good option, with a riverside walk back into town.
• Get there early. For the Orange Races, find a spot on the higher half of Fore Street by 1.30pm. The view from the doorstep of one of the cafes is hard to beat.
• Look up the date. The Elizabethan Society confirms the Orange Races date in late spring each year; check visitsouthdevon.co.uk or the Society’s Facebook page.
• Plan dinner ahead. Totnes restaurants fill up on festival days. Booking is sensible for the Bull, Pie Street or Rumour.
• Bring waterproofs in August. Devon in late summer is unpredictable; oranges, however, race regardless of weather.

The Totnes Orange Races sit at the warm-hearted end of English eccentricity, somewhere between a serious civic tradition and a town in on its own joke. If you want to dig deeper into the Tudor side of Totnes life, take a look at our piece on the Totnes Elizabethan Charter Day Tradition, which fills in the wider context of the Society’s calendar.