A YouTube video featuring Tom Scott, who visited Honiton in the summer to document the Hot Pennies event, has been viewed more than two million times.

The video, entitled 'This town throws pennies at people. They hurt' shows the 2023 event.

He explores the town's history of the event, shows footage from 2023 interviews former Honiton Town Mayor Helen Hurford and town crier Dave Retter.

A the start of the video, we hear from Paul Carter, chair of the Hot Pennies committee, who has been organising Hot Pennies every year for the past 47 years.

He said: "Honiton is a town between Exeter and London which had a lot of inns. Throughout the year they used to put out a jar or a tray for people to put loose change in, which would then be used at Hot Pennies. Nowadays we have to order the pennies in from the banks weeks in advance!"

Honiton Hot Pennies started more than 700 years ago as a fair when Honiton was granted its Royal Charter. As part of the fair the organisers wanted to start something that would bring people in. It was also said that landlords weren't paying their rent, so decided to have an amnesty. That is why Mr Retter says 'no man will be arrested' at the start of the event.

In the video, Mrs Hurford and Mr Retter reminisce about taking part in Hot Pennies when they were children.

Mr Retter said: "We used to skive off school and put on old clothes and iron-bottomed boots so we didn't burn ourselves, of course when we returned we were given nine yards for skiving off. 

"There is even a woman in the town who has a burn on her neck and arm from a Hot Pennies even she attended in their 60s. Nowadays the pennies are merely warmed up not burning."

Mrs Hurford said: "This is my first year at Hot Pennies as Mayor, but I have fond memories of coming to Honiton every year. When I was a child, one boy in my year even claimed the burn on his arm was from a Hot Pennies event."

The video, published on YouTube on August 14, currently has 2,098,817 views and 92,000 likes as of today.

Tom Scott has had 6.38M subscribers and has published 732 videos on a range of subjects including science technology and weird and wonderful traditions the UK has.

The blurb at the bottom of the video says: "The Honiton Hot Pennies ceremony is the result of 800 years of tradition: from when rich people would entertain themselves by throwing scalding-hot pennies onto the poor people below.

"These days, it's a bit less dangerous... but only a bit."