Heritage Food Festival

About us

In Association with Heritage Open Days Tavistock Heritage Trust proudly presents a celebration of the past, present and future of our culinary heritage and culture as part of this year's Open Days theme of Edible England.

Join us at Tavistock's glorious Butcher's Hall when the tables will be set for a fabulous day of celebration, education, and culinary delight. We've gathered the very best artisan food and drink producers from right across the southwest to bring you foraged woodland delights, delicious forgotten recipes, and regional delicacies galore. Get set for a fascinating journey into the past, through the present, and to the future of our culinary heritage and culture. This family friendly event is packed with things to do, including:

Cultural cuisine - our artisan food and drink producers showcase their wares, often featuring locally produced ingredients, local specialities, or ingredients that have fallen out of fashion.
Nature's table - find out how to gather and cook using ingredients sourced directly from Mother Nature's larder. This fascinating session takes a closer look at family friendly foraging and is designed to inspire the next generation of chefs to add exciting, fresh, and eco-friendly flavours to their menus.
The Home of the Cream Tea – Legend has it that the monks of Tavistock's Benedictine Abbey were serving an early version of a cream tea way back in the 10th Century with rye bread and clotted cream. The bread evolved into Tuff yeast buns, but nowadays most people enjoy their cream teas with scones. You can sit back and enjoy the most wonderful cream tea ever, right here at our festival!
Craft workshops - for creativity that extends beyond all that is food and drink, join our workshops held throughout the day to learn willow-weaving, woodturning, felting, spinning, glassblowing and more...
English Folk Morris Dancing - don your breeches, ruggles and baldrics and gather up your sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs as you jig along to our colourful English Folk dancers.
Traditional Games - the team from the Tavistock Guildhall will man a fun traditional games area for kids of all ages. Try your hand at Hoopla, Quoits, Tumbling Blocks, Skittles and more...
Live Folk-Rock - Enjoy Jonah's Lift, an energetic and engaging Cornish band, well known for their unusual musical arrangements and lively quirky stage performance.

Make the 12th of September a feel-good Sunday to remember at this wonderful late summer festival at the heart of historic Tavistock at the edge of Dartmoor in West Devon. Make a date to join us and bring the whole family too.

This event is entirely FREE to attend, and local parking is plentiful.

This event will be delivered in a Covid-safe manner, and will comply with all relevant Government guidelines at the time.