Throughout the country there are several thousand known examples of the Green Man, with many more still to be discovered. The earliest of these date from the beginning of the Middle Ages. They were common throughout the Medieval period and in some ecclesiastical buildings - Canterbury Cathedral for example - they may be counted in the dozens. The popularity ofthe Green Man came to an abrupt end, in Britain at least, with the Reformation. The new simplified approach to Christianity brought about a backlash against the colourful and symbolic imagery of the Roman Church. Sculptures, paintings, windows, and decorations of all kinds, not only the Green Man, were destroyed, whitewashed over, or simply forgotten. In subsequent years, some rare examples continued to be produced for secular buildings such as the gates of Hampton Court Palace. A Green Man wall plaque, handmade in stoneware clay. With the Victorian Gothic Revival, the Green Man became popular once again. It was an accepted design

Mari Lwyd - the Grey Mare - is the central character of a midwinter festive tradition celebrated in South Wales, and elsewhere. Through the dark nights between Christmas and New Year, the Mari leads her unruly retinue from house to house, winning access by outsinging the inhabitants at each door, and, once inside, boisterous revelries ensue. There are many accounts of the Mari Lwyd tradition to be found in old newspapers. The interpretations of the custom found in them have just as many variations. From the Evening Express, 28th December 1894 “MARI LWYD." “Every native of Wales will have heard of “Mari Lwyd." The title is given to a horse's head decked with ribbons of all colours; eyes of glass, pricking ears, with a. sheet in the shape of a horse's body. Underneath that sheet is a youth, and he carries, bv means of two sticks fastened under the sheet to the lower jaw, lite head of the skeleton. By that contrivance the youth is able to open and shut the jaws of the skeleton's head, ric