Plympton St Maurice invites families to swap screens for summer festival fun

Desperate to cut family screen time but stumped for affordable alternatives? Then head to Plympton St Maurice for the traditional Mid-Summer Festival on 19-21 June.

Would Instagram food photos sizzle like hot lamb or plump sausages at the Saturday Lamb Feast? The event features more than 40 stalls from local businesses and charities, plus events and traditional games. Try your hand at skittles and the capricious Human Fruit Machine, or cheer on your local pub team in a gritty tug-of-war.

Can TikTok offer the flowering fragrances and birdsong of the village’s hidden gardens? About 20 will be open for a secret peek on Sunday afternoon.

How can YouTube compete with a shot of live culture from a village proud of its links to prominent English artists?

Proceedings kick off on Friday with a concert by the Sir Joshua Reynolds Choir and continue on Saturday and Sunday with an exhibition of local art, both in the 15th-century Guildhall.

Tucked into a winding valley below Plympton’s Ridgeway, St Maurice is a medieval village built on the tin trade. The 18th-century manor house, Saxon church and main street of pastel-coloured terraced cottages could grace a Jane Austen novel.

Every year in mid-June, residents who usually covet their peaceful solitude happily welcome fellow celebrants to mark the arrival of summer. The festival, centred on the green below the ruined Norman castle, enjoys a long history, with revels dating from the early 1800s.

Here are the details:

Friday 19 June: Songs in the Sun concert by the Sir Joshua Reynolds Choir, Guildhall, 42 Fore Street. Doors open at 7 pm. Concert at 7.30 pm. Tickets £7.50 on the door. Refreshments available.

Saturday 20 June and Sunday 21 June: Art Exhibition, Guildhall. Saturday noon-5 pm and Sunday 2-5 pm.

Saturday: Lamb Feast, Castle Green, noon-5 pm. Food, local business and charity stalls, and games, ending with a tug-of-war tournament between local pub teams. Other activities and demonstrations include dance and judo, classic cars, bouncy inflatables, a traditional fire engine and a dog show sponsored by local groomers The Doghouse. Ocean City Radio will compère events.

Allisons Butchers are supplying the meat, and food stalls will sell soft drinks. The nearby London Inn pub offers a wide range of real ales and West Country ciders.

Sunday: Hidden Gardens, 2-5 pm. Tickets £5 for adults and free for children. Available from three village locations: the Guildhall, the end of George Lane and Dark Street Lane.

Refreshments will be available at the church hall. Music from Drum Abundance will be heard around the village.

Full details can be found at: https://www.plymptonstmaurice.com/events

Parking in the village is limited. The car parks on the western edge of Plympton’s Ridgeway are a five-minute walk away through the Pathfields green space, and there is a frequent Plymouth Citybus service to St Maurice, including routes 21, 21A and 52, and to nearby Plympton on route 20A.