Church Stretton

"This happy place draws people to it like a seaside town, for health is in its air and a thousand delights in the little streams and green hollows of its sheltering hills."

Thus Arthur Mee, quaintly, in The King's England: Shropshire. He was right in his general assessment of the place, at least, though not in all of his details...
For example, he describes the ancient carved figure above the Norman north door of the parish church as 'a man with arms akimbo'. It is, in fact, a sheila-na-gig, a pre-Christian fertility symbol, the representation of a female figure (goddess, perhaps) displaying her genitals, representing the door to life.

I don't know whether Arthur Mee really knew this and was just pretending, nor what the Norman church builders were thinking when they placed her above the church door. A little bit of an insurance policy, keeping in with the 'Old Religion'? Or was it a way of saying, 'The old way wasn't the door to life, but this (church) door, which leads you to Christ, is?

As with all of us, it's probably not possible to disentangle a jumble of different possible motives they may have had with their long-ago faith and world-view. But she's certainly one of more unusual sights of the town.

Much more about Church Stretton to follow, as we settle in to our new (second) home, and get to know it all better! In the mean time, here is a link to the town's own web-site.

Pictures of the Church Stretton flat:   Before we moved in … and later