Paging DMcG: Back to 1066? The Battle of Hastings?? Historians tell us that the Padstow Obby Oss definitely pre-dates Christianity. St. Petroc brought Christianity to Padstow in the Sixth Century. The festival clearly dates back to Celtic times, the celebration of Cale Me, the First of May. Donald R. Rawe wrote in his book, Prospects of Cornwall: The original Padstow hobby horse seems to have been quite small, a relative of the little Morris hobbies that attend or attended many folk customs. Morris dances and customs have their fertility associations, and Padstow's May Day and horse mask certainly have theirs; the event must go back to the Celtic summer festival of Beltaine and probably before that, to the Bronze or Neolithic Age. The greenery brought into the town, the symbolic mating with young women abducted under the skirts of the Oss, and many lines in the age-old song, all create an atmosphere of procreation and rebirth." END All of the above pre-dates 1066, I'll try to dig out documentation and get back to you.