Jon and I are both Padstow Carollers and have been singing them for over 20 years, even though we are incomers. We are not a choir, just a group of local people who gather together and sing the carols from the Padstow area, meeting in the Market Square at about 7 - 7.30 before going around the town to sing. We start this Sunday. There is a tradition of village or local carols which is still found in pockets around the UK, Padstow, Sheffield, some areas of Derbyshire etc.   There are also collections of other carols e.g. in Dorset, which are old carols which were sung by the quires before the introduction of hymns ancient and modern. It was mainly during the victorian era that they were replaced and a good descriptions of how it came about can be found in the novels of Thomas Hardy. Carols sung like this have a much more intense feel about them and singing them so they ring out across the water of the harbour is just magical. Christmas isn't Christmas until we've sung the carols. Strike Sound.