Beckington, Somerset

St George's church at Beckington is home to three rather strange, rather large animal sculptures. They're kind of positioned to look like they're propping up the roof. But I don't think they are. They give the impression of having been moved perhaps. All are cosied up to the edge of windows.

Two face right, and one faces left. When they're mentioned on the internet, only two are mentioned - the poor creature on the other side of the church has gone unnoticed :(

When B and I saw them, we couldn't work out what sort of creature they are. They all have luxuriantly stripey coats - particularly the left-facing one, who has the pattern all over its body. Together with their funny little noses, and wide eyes, we wondered if they could be sheep. There were a lot of sheep figuring in the modern decoration of the church and I wonder whether Beckington made its money with them. But then again - what type of sheep have big fingers / claws? Nope.

They're generally described as lions. And perhaps they are lions, with their claws and stripey manes and silly lolling tongues (do lions have silly lolling tongues?). The two right-facers do have rather lion-y legs and paws. You can walk right underneath them and see the details of their undersides. Interestingly you can see the classic 'tail tucked between legs and brought over back' feature.

The CRSBI site doesn't even mention them. They looked pretty Norman to us, for their weirdness and chunkiness? Maybe not. It's curious there's only three of them, you feel like they've been saved and reused. Pevsner mentions them but doesn't hazard a date. He was a busy man. We can let him off :)

This is from a stone in the outside south wall:

It's rather like the saltire cross and dotted circle pattern that we saw over in the lovely Little Langford. Except they had a fancier three circles per section.

Images © Rhiannon 2014