Puzzle Description

Padstow Harbour is located on the north coast of the promontory of Corwall in England and is about 20 miles north of Newquay, another bustling harbour for both commerce and tourists. Padstow has long been a busy port and part of the port of Padstow was the port of Wadebridge. Wadebridge was a thriving port for many years, the railway being there 50 years before it came along the present Camel Trail to Padstow. Padstow and the estuary, like everything else, is continually evolving and emerging, and with the help of the Harbour Commissioners and staff the entire locale continues to improve.

Padstow is best known for its "'Obby 'Oss" festival. You might never have heard of it as its origins are not well documented and it is mostly a local rite. It might have originated as a ancient Celtic fertility rite: the feast of Beltane. The festival gets underway as the clock strikes twelve midnight on May Eve. Townspeople, some of whom are appropriately dressed gatherand sing the "Night Song" outside the Golden Lion Inn. As morning, dawns the town is covered in in all manner of greenery and there will be flowers around the village maypole. The excitement begins with the appearance of one of the 'Obby 'Osses. Male dancers cavort through the town dressed as one of two 'Obby 'Osses, the "Old" and the "Blue Ribbon" 'Obby 'Osses; as the name suggests, they are stylised kinds of horses. Prodded on by acolytes known as "Teasers," each wears a mask and black frame-hung cape under which they try to catch young maidens as they pass through the town. Throughout the day, the two parades, led by the "Mayer" in his top hat and decorated stick, followed by a band of accordions and drums, then the 'Oss and the Teaser, with a host of people - all singing the "Morning Song."[1] - pass along the streets of the town. Finally, late in the evening, the two 'osses meet, at the maypole, before returning to their respective stables where the crowd sings of the 'Obby 'Oss death, until its resurrection the following May Eve.

Padstow has always been subject to a major tidal problem: on the equinoctial spring tides, it floods. In 1988 this problem was addressed and over the period of two years, the present day flood-defence scheme was built - sheet piling and extending the pier in the Inner Basin, building a tidal gate and raising the walls on Langford’s Quay. The result is that since the gate was put in the town has not flooded. The by-product of this scheme is that the Inner Harbour is now kept wet, providing Marina conditions for visiting craft, whereas prior to this the harbour would dry on every ebb tide.

Like all Gibsons puzzles, Padstow Harbour is made of 100% recycled premium puzzle board and can be assembled time and time again as if it were new. The puzzle measures 68 x 49 centimeters when complete.

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