A woman died after being struck by a traditional hobby horse costume during a May Day celebration in Cornwall, an inquest has heard.
Laura Smallwood, a paediatric nurse, was injured when she was bumped by an “obby oss”, one of a pair used in the centuries-old festival held at Padstow, north Cornwall, on 1 May 2019.
The obby oss is made from a wooden frame covered in black oilskin with a small horse’s head featuring a snapping jaw. A blue oss and red oss process around the town on May Day.
One witness, Sian Howells, told the hearing in Truro that it was at the point where the two osses meet that the incident happened.
She said: “Laura had gone behind the oss. All of a sudden the oss moved backwards. It is very unusual for it to go backwards. As it fell Laura was standing with her back to the oss.
“The one thing you are always told is not to have your back to the oss. Most people face the oss with their hands out. I could see it coming towards her, the rim of the oss hitting the back of her neck. She was knocked over and it looked like she fell to the ground.”
Kevin Constance, who was carrying the obby oss, said he fell backwards “on to my bum”.
Constance, who has been involved in the processions or 40 years since he was 16, said: “Everything was fine, for some reason I felt myself going backwards. I did not trip at the time. It does not happen very often at all but it did on this occasion. I was sober. I was not aware of hitting anybody. I could only see forward.”
He was helped up and continued on his way “completely unaware” of the incident with Smallwood.
Constance, who has been honorary secretary of the May Day celebrations for 22 years, told the coroner that May Day in Padstow was more popular than Christmas Day but admitted it was like Bovril – “you either love it or hate it”.
The senior Cornwall coroner Andrew Cox said the inquest would look at whether Smallwood died as a consequence of injuries sustained in her clash with the oss.
He said another explanation was that she suffered from injuries caused during an altercation earlier that evening outside one of the celebrity chef Rick Stein’s businesses in the town.
The coroner said Smallwood may have sustained injuries caused by an unidentified event about 10 days earlier, or a fourth possibility was that she sustained some injuries in “some other way”.
Another witness, Charlotte Stupple, said that after the incident with the oss, Smallwood felt dizzy. She said: “Thirty seconds later Laura grabbed my arm and said: ‘Charlotte, my face.’ I could see the right side of her face by her mouth had dropped.” He breathing became laboured and she was taken to hospital.”
The inquest heard that Smallwood’s husband, Oliver, wanted to know if the event management was organised adequately and whether any changes had been made.
He said his wife was a caring, fun, happy and strong person who had no medical conditions or illnesses.
The inquest continues.
