Padstow (Cornish Lannwedhenek) is a small town and port on the north coast of Cornwall with a population of about 3,000.
Padstow was originally named Petroc-stow, after the Welsh missionary St. Petroc, who landed at nearby Trebetherick around AD 500.
Padstow isn’t usually thought of as a “Viking town”, but it was near Padstow that in 722 AD the Britons of Cornwall united with the Vikings of Denmark to destroy an invading Anglo-Saxon army led by Ine of Wessex at “Hehil”. The Saxons army was slaughtered, and this decisive battle gave Cornwall 100 years of freedom from attacks by Wessex