Towser the mouser
A fine bronze of Towser a long haired tortoise shell female cat, can be seen at the Glenturret Distillery near Crieff in Scotland. Towser was the distillery cat for 24 years between 1963 and 1987 and lived in the still house where its job was to catch mice. Each morning the stillman would find that Towser had laid out an average of three mice each day for his inspection.
The Guinness Book of Records entry gives the figure of 28,899 mice which it is estimated that Towser caught in those 24 years.
.JPG)
.JPG)
A special cat flat and ramp is still used by Towser's successors
Cat’s monument
This fine monument stands on a small
island in the Grounds of Shugborough House in Staffordshire the home of the
Anson family who became Earl’s of Lichfield . Admiral George Anson circumnavigated the world in the 18th century and it
is thought that this monument was to commemorate the cat that accompanied him.
The cat's memorial
A medieval cat flap
Cat flaps are a common feature in
many a household door. If you look
below the 14th century clock in Exeter Cathedral, you will see a
small door with a hole in it, a medieval cat flap. The story goes that mice were constantly
responsible for nibbling away the ropes holding the clock weights hanging
behind the small door. Apparently the
sexton was given a special allowance for a cat to attend to the matter and he
cut the hole in the door to allow the cat unlimited access.
Medieval cat flap
A wild cat
Back in the 15th
century. Sir Percival Cresacre was Lord of the Manor at Barnburgh in South Yorkshire .
Legend has it that one moonlit night, Sir Percival was returning home on
his horse Winifred, when a wild cat sprang onto the horses back. The horse bolted unseating its rider and the
cat then attacked Sir Percival who fought back strongly. Their struggle raged towards St Peter’s
church at Barnburgh and ended up in the church porch where, although severely
wounded, the knight used his last ounce of strength to push the cat with his
feet. He actually managed to crush the
cat against the church wall finally killing it. When the alarm was raised, a local man
called Woodford found Sir Percival dying in the church porch and heard the
story of his fight with the wild cat before he died. A worn family crest can be seen on the
church tower at Barnburgh. The arms of
the Cresacres is three purple lions rampart on a golden shield and has a crest
of a cat on a mountain. A crest is
usually an additional grant of arms which indicates that at a later date a cat
played some part in the history of the family, adding some authentication to
the story.
Barnburgh Church
The Dun Cow
A fine sculpture of a cow to be seen on the river bank reminds us of Durham's origins and the legend of the Dun Cow.
St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne (
Sculptures portraying the Dun Cow and the Milkmaids are set in the north-west turret of a gable on the north front of Durham Cathedral.
The Dun Cow
The Old Dun
Cow
An old cottage in Halfpenny Lane Lancashire , bears
the date 1616 above the door, together with the rib bone of a cow The story goes that during a severe drought
in the 17th century, the
old dun cow provided enough milk for
all, long after the wells had run
dry. Legend has it that a local witch
was caught milking the cow into a sieve and the cow died.
The Old Dun Cow
The Ketton Ox
The old North Riding of Yorkshire town of Yarm, now in the
modern county of Cleveland, was an important coaching stop and in 1848 this
tiny town had no less than 16 inns, half of which are still in use today.
The imposing Ketton
Ox, dating from the 17th
century, now the oldest inn in the
town, gains its name from a huge
cow. This famous shorthorn was reared by
Charles Colling of Ketton Hall in 1796 and grew to the huge size of 220 stones
and was valued at the enormous sum in those days of £250.
This inn was also a popular venue for cockfighting and a special room was set aside in the
attic for that purpose. When the
‘sport’ became illegal in 1849, cockfighting continued and a ‘decoy’ room was
constructed alongside the original in case the place was raided. Curious oval shaped windows, now covered up,
gave good light into the arena.
The Ketton Ox
Bull baiting
The Bull and Dog Inn in the main street of Sleaford in Lincolnshire
The Bull and Dog
The bull would have been tethered to a metal ring, either in the ground or on a wall. and would have been baited by a bulldog, one of the oldest breeds of British dog. This 'sport' was abolished in 1835. A remaining example can be seen at Eyam in Derbyshire
Eyam
Moffat Ram
Situated at the top of the High Street at Moffat is the Colvin Fountain with its ram, which signifies the importance of the local sheep farming industry. It was sculptured by William Brodie R.S.A who also sculptured Edinburgh's 'Greyfriars Bobby'. A curious thing about this sculpture is that the ram is missing its ears and has been since it was presented to the town in 1875 by William Colvin. "It has nae lugs" was the cry at the unveiling ceremony much to the embarrassment of the sculptor. A sheep racing event has been established in the town centre in August each year.
Pickering
Pickering in North Yorkshire is a delightful
small market town at the foot of the North York Moors and the southern terminus
of the North York Moors Railway.
The name of
this town apparently derives from pike
and ring. Alongside the A170 road on the western outskirts of the town is a
large pond known as Keld Head Spring and legend has it that it was a favourite
haunt and bathing place for the young King Pereduras whose palace was nearby.
The story goes that the king lost a ring, a heirloom passed from father to son
to ensure the continuation of the royal line. Apparently he accused a young
servant girl of stealing the ring, but sometime later the King was dining on a
huge pike which had been caught in the pond and as he cut it open Pereduras
found the lost ring inside the fish. The triumphal discovery prompted him to
call the town Pike-a-ring. In the
truest tradition of fairy tales, he married the servant girl and they all lived
happily ever after.
Keld Head spring
Fish Ladder
This fish ladder,
completed in 1951, is alongside the Pitlochry Power Station on the River Tummel.
It was constructed as a result of a 1943 Act of Parliament which laid a duty of
care on the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board to preserved fish stocks in
waterway power schemes. The first of its kind in Scotland, the ladder consists
of 34 separate pools, each rising 1.6 feet higher than the last over 339 yards
to enable fish, especially migrating salmon, to reach the upper part of the
river beyond the dam. A fish counter records the number of fish making the
journey and they can be observed at a special glass walled viewing area.
The Snake Catcher
Brockehurst is a village in the heart of the New
Forest in Hampshire.
A very fine marble stone in the old churchyard marks the
grave of an unusual New Forest character, Harry Mills, who died in 1905 aged 67
years. Better known as ‘Brusher Mills’ he had lived in an
illegal shack in the forest for almost 30 years. Actually the shack was burned down just one
day before the 30 years required to claim the home and land upon which it stood
under ancient forest law. He was
known as ‘Brusher’ simply because of the meticulous way he brushed the village
cricket pitch. His main occupation
however was that of ‘snakecatcher’ and he is credited with having killed a
total of 3186 New Forest adders which he sold to London Zoo as live feed for
the larger snakes. The gravestone
depicts a carving of Mills near to his shack and several snakes. The local pub is called ‘The Snake
Catcher.’
.JPG){kind=link}