The River Otter gives its name to Ottery St Mary, the Devon town known for carrying flaming tar barrels on Bonfire Night.
The river rises in the Blackdown Hills and flows south through East Devon before reaching the English Channel at the town of Budleigh Salterton. Ottery St Mary stands in the river’s valley, and the watercourse is a central geographical feature of the surrounding area.
The town’s name combines “Ottery,” referring to the river, with “St Mary,” referring to its historic religious dedication. This makes the river name a useful way to distinguish the Devon town from places with similar names.
The tar-barrel tradition is held on 5 November and is separate from the river itself; the river provides the geographical name, not the origin of the fire-carrying custom.