Cobb's Horse first saw the light of day back in 1976 when the newly revived Adderbury Morris Men had been invited to dance at the Sidmouth Festival and one very new dancer, Stephen Wass, was desperate to be in on the action, but not yet qualified as a dancer. the answer, create a beast to take along as a supernumery. The name 'Cobb's Horse' comes from an Adderbury legend to the effect that the ghost of wicked Squire Cobb careers through the village in his coach pulled by phantom horses, this is one of them.
Well actually it's not really, despite having an Adderbury stick dance named after it this beast owes more to the West Country for its origins and especially Padstow.. In fact Cobb's Horse is a stylised version of the wonderful creation that takes to the streets of Padstow every May Day. The tent like body is supported on a plastic hoop whilst the conical mask covers the operator's whole head . Protruding from the front is a rather rudimentary carved wooden horse's head with a gently snapping jaw.
Here is a very early appearance in Bicester during a joint Adderbury/Bourne River Toiur, Saturday June 26th. 1976
The beast had several outings in 1976 but by the following year it was seen less often as everyone was really much more interested in dancing. It then languished in various attics for the next quarter of a century with very infrequent appearances until it was resurrected for the first Banbury Hobby Horse festival in 2000.
Cobb's Horse meets Simon Pipe and Anton the Anteater
Ed Priest was the operator and was so taken with it that he persuaded the rest of the family to restore it. They took the bare bones, recovered the body, made a new mask and all for the very reasonable sum of £28. The new horse had its first outing at the Adderbury day of dance 2002 and also featured in the side's appearance at Bampton's day of dance when the following video was shot.
