I am sorry that a sentrence which I can see now is grammatically incorrect has caused so much confusion. If you look carefully the sentence says there is photographic and written evidence. I should have put in a comma to make it photographic, and written, I suppose. I would have thought, though, that the meaning of it was obvious. I am quite aware that photographs have not been around for centuries, although, if you want to be pernickity, they have as we are now in the 21st and photographs were around in the 19th, but I'm not that picky. There is written evidence and it can be found in Padstow museum and local collections.   There are very early photographs. Guising in Padstow is not something that came in with minstrelsy. Also, Derek, that photograph may well have been in a 2007 newspaper but it was, most definitley, not taken in recent years. It is one of those that gets pulled from files year on year and is so annoying as it just fuels the media and gives no credit for the changes.
Anyway, as I said in the beginning, and I only put in the information I have as I live in Cornwall and must be one of the very few people contributing to this thread and discussion that has been there and seen it and know the people who do it, both the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commission For Racial Equality have examined the tradition of guising, whatever you want to call it, in Padstow and found it is not racist, nor is there any racist intent. It is an English Tradition and has no racist overtones whatsoever. Their words, not mine. I now bow out. If you really want to know what it is all about, rather than pontificate from afar... come and see it for yourselves, then make your decision. You will be made welcome.