Pilton Festival in Barnstaple, North Devon, started in 1982 following the arrival of the Rev. Anthony Geering as Vicar of St Mary’s Church, Pilton. Together with Ian Thomas, Albert Linacre, Noel Harley and others, he started what has now turned into the annual Pilton Green Man Day. A short interview with Ian and Sue Thomas, who lived here in the 1980s, was made when they visited Pilton in September 2013, but it has temporarily been lost in the rebuild of the archive. We will add it again when we have tracked it down somewhere in the backup. Pet Harley, Liz Eveleigh and John Norman were all involved in the discussion. It gives a good idea of how the Pilton Festival first came about and how it took place again in 1984 and again in 1986 and then went yearly in 1988 after the Easter Festival organised by the Horse & Bamboo Theatre Company in 1987.
This photograph shows Pilton Street during the market in 1982.