A traditional village festival which is held annually on New Year's Eve has been organised for more than 160 years.

Here, we take a look at the celebrated event which attracts hundreds of visitors to Allendale for the occasion.

Allendale's historic Tar Bar'ls Festival takes place in the Tynedale village.

For the past two consecutive years, the event has been unable to go ahead due to Covid-19.

Believed to have started more than 160 years ago, it sees the village light up with a fiery spectacle.

In 2010, Chair of the festival John Lister, Organiser Sylvia Milburn, and President Hilton Walker launched the official CD of the Allendale Tar Bar'l.

They were joined by some of the guisers and singers who performed on the CD.

In the customary tradition, the group of 'guisers', 45 local men, carry whiskey barrels filled with burning hot tar through a procession, wearing fancy dress with their faces blackened by soot.

To become a guiser, men must have been born in the Allen Valleys.

Past 'characters' have included Oompa Loompas and Donald Trumps, Storm Troopers, the cast of Dad's Army and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The guisers parade around the Market Square carrying flaming barrels, while hundreds of spectators look on.

Barrels are filled with sticks and wood shavings on a bed of sawdust, to prevent the paraffin from leaking out.

At 11.30pm, the torches are lit and the barrels ignited. 

Each guiser lifts the flaming barrels up on to the top of their heads and falls in behind the band.

At midnight, they arrive at the pre-built bonfire in the town centre. 

The barrels are then used to ignite this ceremonial bonfire, while everyone shouts: "Be damned to he who throws last."

In 2014, a Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired Paul Bowes carried a flaming barrel at the Allendale Tar Bar'l, while guisers William Stonehouse and Jonny Burns sported traditional costumes.