Rock

The Figure

This near exhibitionist figure is to found in the Church of St Peter and St Paul Rock a few mile north-west of Worcester. The figure’s legs are splayed and held apart by the arms in a very sheela like pose. Saying that there is little to indicate the sex of the figure, though from what appears to be a headdress the overall impression is that of a female figure. In addition to this there is a pillar or possible phallus between it’s legs this could possibly be part of the snake or even a “stool”. The figure is intertwined with a serpent figure with what looks to be a bird’s head (this may just be a medieval style of representing snake heads) and could be an example of a femme aux serpents figure. See Images of Lust for examples. While the figure lacks the overt exhibitionist nature of the sheela-na-gig there are undeniable sexual elements to it. Malcom Thurlby the author of the ‘The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture’ describes the figure as exhibitionist ¹ and also mentions an abstract exhibitionist figure on the corbel table above the main door (see below). Bizarrely he compares this figure to the Sheela-na-gig at Kilpeck. The figure appears to be an animal head with two paws (arms?) either side and a grooved tongue protruding between them. Faint eyes are evident at the top of the figure.

Interestingly both he and Professor Zarnecki ² ascribe the carving on the chancel arch, which includes the exhibitionist figure, to the Aston Master of the Herefordshire School who was also responsible in part for the carving at Kilpeck.

The Village of Rock

The village of Rock or Ake does not appear in the Domesday book but may be identified with the two berewicks Kiddiminster called Ribbesford. In the past Rock was once more important than it is today. In 1328 Henry de Ribbesford had a grant of a weekly market and a yearly fair on the feast of St Margaret. A now destroyed manuscript at Stanford Court records that “here was anciently a large town fit for receit, it may seem to have been a mercat”. The commercial importance of Rock is further borne out by the quality of the carving in the church which is said to rank with the best work in the county.

1 The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Art. Malcom Thurlbury.
2 Later English Romanesque Sculpture 1140-1210 Prof. George Zarnecki
3 Victoria County History A History of the County of Worcester: volume 4 (British History Online)

The position of figure on chancel arch (red arrow)

Horse head with knotwork capital.

Bizarre goggle headed corbel

An abstract exhibitionist?

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Bredwardine

The Figure

This figure is situated above a low blocked doorway on the Church of St Andrew’s at Bredwardine in Herefordshire. Described in the church pamphlet as a “monkey” figure it displays a definite exhibitionist type pose. Unfortunately the stone is weathered but there does seem to be an indication of some carving between the legs which is unfortunately now missing or damaged. It’s hard to say whether or not this figure was a sheela/exhibitionist but the overall pose does seem to suggest it. The figure has appears to be wearing a headress and/or has very large ears strengthening its monkey like appearance. The figure also appears to have two breasts and has one hand touching the mouth while the other is held aloft. There is also a strange bird/snake headed figure adjacent to the “monkey” carving. This can be seen in the picture below. (It’s worth comparing the head of this figure to the snakes head on the Rock figure.) Both figures are flanked by two geometric floral carvings. The right hand pillar is topped and tailed by two very worn faces. The bottom face being inverted. Was the figure originally exhibitionist? Hard to say but I think it’s worth including it in the “possible” file. If you visit this figure be sure to look underneath the lintel as it is carved too.

The Sheela of the Baskervilles?

To the south of the churchyard lie the now scant remains of Bredwardine castle. It consists of a motte with an irregular oblong bailey. The keep seems to have separated from the bailey by a ditch. The castle would not have been overly large with the remains only measuring 78 x 45 feet. At the time of the Norman conquest Bredwardine was granted to John de Bredwardine but by the early 1200s had passed into the hands of the Baskerville family. It is interesting to note that like nearby Kilpeck, Devizes and Holdgate to the North the church appears to be part of or at l east very near to a significant Norman fortification. Due to the nature of the carving and the geometric floral ornament its thought that this is an eary carving possibly even 11th century which would not make this figure the Sheela of the Baskervilles.

For more information on Bredwardine Castle including a map showing the castles proximity to the church look here
http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/castles/castlesdata_az/bredwardine.htm

The church at Bredwardine is also famous for one of it’s previous vicars, the Victorian diarist Rev. Francis Kilvert who is buried in the churchyard.

Update 26th Nov 2005
The CRSBI site has a page dedicated to the carvings on Bredwardine church and also comes to the conclusion that the figure may be an exhibitionist or Luxuria figure.

Malcom J. Watkins of Gloucester City Museum is also of the opinion that this figure is a possible exhibitionist and mentions this briefly in connection with the Annus tablesman piece at Gloucester museum.

John Harding

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Penmon

Location: ///punt.hoped.highways

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The present church of St Seiriol at Penmon on the Isle of Anglesy (Ynys Môn) in North Wales, was built between 1120 to 1123 and was once a major monastic site. St Seiriol lived in his cell just behind the church in the 6th century. The foundations of his cell, and the well are other interesting features of the area. The church also includes a wealth of carvings including a rather fine tympanum above the south door, the 11th century font, Celtic Crosses, arcading, a bearded man carrying an axe which is thought to represent Gofannon the Pagan god of blacksmiths, and the Sheela. The Sheela was thought to have originated on the west outside wall of the south transept, but is now fixed to the wall inside the south transept of the church.
The Penmon figure is badly weathered and the head has little of the facial features left although her ears can be made out. Both arms are held at the side of the body, the slit of the vulva is deeply carved between the legs which are held straight. Andersen suggests its similarity to the Oxford Sheela.

According to Roberts and McMahon a second figure situated in the dark interior of the church may also be a Sheela na Gig but very little is known about it. This is situated on a capital at the top of the south pillar of the rather fine Norman arch at the back of the church. This is rather crude and somewhat comical, which Anthony Weir describes as splay-legged, sexless and probably an acrobat symbolising unnatural acts. Archaeologia Cambrensis describes the western arch as follows

”..the capitals very rudely sculptured, and representing (if anything can now be defined of them), sprawling monsters or fishes..’

Keith Jones

Addendum: A few hours after putting up this page some further information came in from the sheela na gig mailing list. Gay Cannon attended a lecture by Maureen Concannon. While speaking to someone in the audience who had visited Penmon he found out that coins had been left on the ledge below the figure. This was not immediately obvious though as the person had used a ladder to get a closer look. One more indication of the continuing respect that these figures are paid.

Site visit Nov 10 2006

I finally managed to get to Penmon to get some photographs of the figures. My first impression was of surprise at the size of the figure. It was much larger than I expected having only seen it in photographs.

John Harding

This figure has been suggested as a second, somewhat abstract, sheela na gig in a similar style to the Haddon Hall sheela. The piece is set high in the wall of the chancel above the larger tower arch. It is accompanied by a smaller enclosed head which appears to be part of a voussoir. This carving may also be part of a now missing arch. As you can see from the photograph the carving is very worn but does have a gap at the bottom of the figure. We could interpret the outer ridges of the carving as representing legs while the inner circle represents arms. This is however something of a reach. It’s equally as likely that the carving is merely an enclosed head like its neighbour. Unfortunately like the rest of the figurative carving in the church the quality is not terribly good with confusing details. All in all its hard to say exactly what the carving is supposed to represent.

At first glance this carving appears splay legged but on closer inspection turns out to be a lot more complex and ambiguous. The right “leg” of the figure terminates in what appears to be a head with and open mouth and the other “leg” trails off into a tail. The left “arm” of the figure is bent at 90 degrees while the right appears more winglike. The arms and body may be compeletely separate to the head making bottom half of the carving a inverted dragon/snake like figure surmounted by a corner mask. The snake motif also appears on the opposite capitals (below).

These two capitals like opposite the “splay legged” capital on the other side of the arch.
Whereas the former is confusing these two seem to be completely abstract. The left hand capital seems to be formed of two snake like bodies terminating in open “crab claws” or mouths while over the impression of the capital is of a thick lipped abstract face. The second capital is even more confusing with a headless half egg shaped torso holding down another snake like body. Two rudimentary hands are carved on the snakes body. There appears to be damage or an unfinished area where you would expect the head to be. The rest of the carving is a crude abstract pattern. All in all completely baffling imagery.

This beast head is also set into the wall above the tower arch. It represents a beast of some type holding its snout. This is a common Romanesque motif and is repeated at many sites such as St Peters at Northampton and Kilpeck.

The tower arch.
As you can see the quality of the workmanship on arch is not the best. What appears to be an inscription at the bottom of the arch on the right hand side of the picture is in fact just decoration. The “acrobatic” and head figures can be seen on the left hand side of the picture while the beast head can be seen on the right.

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Cynghordy

The Cynghordy figures are mentioned in the book The Visual Culture of Wales : Medieval Vision. They are currently housed in Camarthenshire County Museum but were originally from an mansion house in Cynghordy. The figures were donated to the Camarthenshire Antiquarian Society and Field Club by a Captain Walter P. Jefferys but the date of the donation is not known. The figures were found embedded in the porch of the house when extensive alterations were made to it in 1886. The house was also said to contain a “disturbing phantom” in one of the rooms. The figures were originally painted and were cleaned by the society ¹. It’s not stated whether the painting was whitewash or something more along artistic lines.

The Figures
The figures appear to be part of two pillars possibly from a doorway as there is carving on three sides of each figure (see below). Each of the front facing figures (left) gesture towards the pubic area. One figure holds something between its hands (an erect penis?) the other gestures towards the groin where a small rounded oblong lies, possibly a pudenda. Confusingly the “male” figure also has something between its legs which does not appear to be testicles and the female “pudenda” does not have a slit or opening which would definitely make it a representation of female genitalia. Both figures have vestigal nipples. On the right hand side of the “female” figure an animal with a long tail clings to her back. This has been interpreted as a monkey in The Visual Culture of Wales. One of the monkey’s lower legs could be interpreted as erect penis however this open to debate. On the left hand side of the “female” there is a figure with raised arms which appears to be standing on something. The groin is represented by a small incised triangle which may indicate the figures is meant to be female. On the right hand side of the “male” figure there is what appears to be another male figure with a large nose who appears to be holding a now broken erect penis. On the left hand side there are two figures and animal of some type which has been interpreted as Adam and Eve in The Visual Culture of Wales. The “male” figure is also standing on a tube like structure which wraps round to both sides of the figure. This could be interpreted as a serpent with the head of the animal being the head of the serpent. However the carving is not clear and again this is open to interpretation. The “serpent” could equally simply be a piece of decoration for the male figure to stand on.

All in all these figures are puzzling, while the sexual organs have definitely been carved they have been done in an ambiguous way which leaves the sex of the figures open to question. The “male” figure has a lozenge between it’s legs which could indicate it is meant to be female yet it also holds a stubby “penis” in it’s hands. The “female” figure’s “pudenda” lacks a defining opening and could equally be interpreted as a flacid penis. The single side figures are a little more definite but even they are open to interpretation. Interestingly another set of Welsh figures in Llanhamlach are also ambiguous, along with the questionable “vulvar phallus” in Raglan.

Thanks go to Gavin Evans of Camarthenshire County Museum for giving us a private viewing of the figures while the museum was closed and allowing us to take pictures of these remarkable figures. Copyright of the pictures remains with the museum and any enquiries for use should be addressed to them.

1. The Eleventh Year’s Transactions of the Camarthenshire Antiquarian Society and Field Club

Male figure side view. Possible broken phallic figure

“Monkey” on female figure’s back.

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Llandrindod Wells

The Llandrindod Sheela. Copyright John Harding The Sheela Na Gig Project

The Figure

Location: ///removes.viewer.chitchat Inside museum.

Directions

The Llandrindod Wells sheela is one of best preserved, probably due to the fact that it has spent the greater portion of it’s life buried face down in the wall of the local parish church . (For another figure that was buried face down see Braunston) Despite the church being a fairly modern construction its is still known as the Old church and lies almost 1000 ft above sea level. The first mention of the church in documents is in 1291 and it is built on what appears to be a natural mound. When I visited the church I asked an old lady in the churchyard if she knew anything about the figure. She replied that it had been found face down in the place where the coal was kept to heat the church.

The sheela has been moved recently to the Radnorshire Museum on long term loan apparently for security reasons. The address is listed below.

Radnorshire Museum,
Temple Street,
Llandrindod Wells,
POWYS
LD1 6BA

Tel: 01597 824513
Fax: 01597 825781

This is one of the few sheelas in Wales the only others being in Penmon, Anglesey far to the North and two possible sheelas in the Camarthen and Ceredigion museums . The carving is crude but the lines are sharply delineated. The vulva is deeply incised and ribs can be seen either side of the torso, the freshness of the carving is remarkable given its age.

Email: radnorshire.museum@powys.gov.uk
Musem Website http://www.powys.gov.uk/index.php?id=2118&L=0

As you can see from the photo below above the sheela was originally kept in a window in the local church it is quite large being over two foot high.

Connections with the Herefordshire School of Sculpture.

The Llandrindod sheela is a loose piece of sculpture no longer in its original setting and such is hard to date. The style of the carving is crude which could indicate a date anywhere from the dark ages to the late medieval. The church in which the figure was found is first mentioned in church documents in the 13th century. However there is some evidence which seems to suggest a romanesque date for the carving sometime during the 12th century. The church of Llanbadarn Fawr a few miles to the north of Llandrindod Wells holds a broken figure, also recorded as a sheela na gig, which bears some similarities to this figure in style. The breasts on both figures are an unusual truncated cone, both are quite large and both feature ribs. It would seem likely that both figures share the same influences or even the same sculptor. The carving at Llanbadarn Fawr is placed firmly in a Romanesque context along with a carved door and tympanum that Malcolm Thurlby suggests shows Herefordshire School influence.

It is interesting that this figure, the only unequivocal sheela in Wales, should have a link with the school that carved Kilpeck however slight. There is also a corbel at the museum from Cwm Hir Abbey which shows distinct Romanesque features. Given both the nearby church and St Padarn and Cwm Hir abbey there seem to be plenty of potential Romanesque sources for the sheela even if it did not originally come from the church where it was found.

The Llandrindod Sheela in its original position

The sheela in the window of the local church circa 1999.

The Romanesque head found at Ty Faenor is thought to have originally been a corbel from the Abbey of Cwmhir (Abatty Cwmhir) one mile distant. The head shows classic Romanesque features though the accompanying sign at the museum says its shows celtic influence.

SheelaLlandrindodCase — The figure at the museum in its case

The Sheela in its case at the museum. Probably one of the best looked after sheela’s in the world.

The Church where the figure was originally housed

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Devizes St John

The Figures

These figures were discovered by Dr Theresa Oakley and Dr Alex Woodcock who published their findings in the paper “The Romanesque Corbel Table at St John’s, Devizes and its Sheela na gig” (The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Volume 99 2006). The Sheela na gig of the title is one of a pair of exhibitionist figures on a corbel. This makes this corbel the third exhibitionist pair discovered so far in the UK, the other two being at Kirknewton and the window lintel at Whittlesford. There is some argument for the figures at Bredwardine being an exhibitionist pair as well, but the figures are damaged or worn and it is impossible now to tell for certain. This also applies to two figures recently discovered in Norfolk which also may have been exhibitionist.
Both of the Devizes figures are worn and damaged but a lot of detail still remains. The female’s lower right arm is missing and there is recent damage to the left arm which may have originally gestured towards the mouth or cheek (This gesture is similar to the Bredwardine figure and can be seen in many other Romanesque carvings.) The vulva is clearly visible and slightly exaggerated. Interestingly both the pudenda and the inner lips seem to be represented which is unusual.
The male figure is holding his damaged penis in his right hand and angles it away from the female figure, a small pair of testicles can just be determined between the legs. Both figures are angled slightly away from each. One can read too much into this but the male figures on both the Kirknewton and Whittlesford carvings seem to be very much interested in the female figure.
In addition to the exhibitionist pair the corbel table also holds an acrobatic monstrous anus shower. This has a bestial face and holds its legs in the exposing a deeply carved anus. Intriguingly in the photo below there appears to be a suggestion of a possible vulva above the anus making the figure female. Again we should be careful of reading to much into this.
There are many other monstrous corbels including one with a monster devouring a human figure head first with only the legs visible and a pair of human figures hugging each other inside a monsters mouth.
Given that a lot of newly discovered figures are equivocal it’s good to see a new discovery that are unambiguous exhibitionists. For those interested Dr Oakley’s Phd. thesis on Sheela na gigs will be published soon as a British Archaeological Report and Dr Woodcock’s paper “Liminal Images. Aspects of Medieval Architectural Sculpture in the South of England from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth centuries” is already available.

There is another exhibitionist figure which is widely regarded as a fake held at the museum in Devizes

The underside view of the exhibitionist pair. Both the pudenda and inner lips are depicted which is unusual.

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Holdgate

The Figure

Location: ///volcano.apprehend.madder

Directions

Holdgate is a tiny village in Shropshire, Tugford lies a mile away and it is not too far away from Church Stretton. The church is quite old and fairly decrepit though it is still in use.

The sheela can be found on the south facing wall of the church over a small doorway. It is quite easy to miss as a large tree obscures both the sheela and doorway. The Carving is, as usual, quite weathered and is quite large especially in comparison to the nearby Tugford Sheelas.

I originally thought that figure lacked legs but this is not actually the case. The figure is described by some authors as “pugilistic” which is understandable given the weathering on the figure. In fact what at first seem to be the figures hands are in fact its knees. The arms are behind the knees with the hand holding the vagina open. You can see this in the photograph on the left. This pose is very similar to the nearby Tugford sheela. The sheela also appears to grimacing and the lips are joined in the front leaving holes either side. . You can see a similar head on the doorway (see below) which has joined lips. This may be an unusual type of beakhead but does not follow the animal theme (brought to my attention by Keith Jones but also noted by Andersen in The Witch on the Wall). The church is again of Norman origin and somewhat dilapidated. The village of Holdgate is very small consisting of a few houses a farm and the church. The font in the church is thought to be of Herefordshire school origin¹. If this is the case then this would tie this church in with Kilpeck in Herefordshire some 40 miles to the south. There is also some indication that nearby Diddlebury is also connected with the Herefordshire school of sculptors.

The Tugford, Holdgate and Church Stretton Sheelas are all in the same vicinity as well as the Diddlebury Figures. Holdgate and Tugford being a mile distant from each other while Church Stretton is about 10 miles away.

There is more information on the Shropshire group of sheelas at the Shropshire Promotions website

sheelaholdgateN2 — The head on the church which is similar to that of the Sheela na Gig

SheelaHoldgateElyJoinedMouth — Ely Cathederal Corbel with Joined Mouth

1 .This information was taken from www.british-history.ac.uk. after Zarnecki. It does not explicitly say that the work is Herefordshire school but compares the font (right) to those at Eardisley and Castle Frome which definitely is Herefordshire school work. The sheela is also thought to be 12thC which would make this contemporary with the Kilpeck sheela and may have been carved by the same people. There is also a bear head at near by Diddlebury which is very similar in style to a bear head at Kilpeck and English Bicknor.

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Kilpeck

The Famous Sheela Na Gig — The Famous Kilpeck Sheela Na Gig

Location : ///puncture.without.informs

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The Sheela on Kilpeck Church near Hereford is probably the most famous sheela image. The sheela is not above a door like the sheelas in Tugford, Holdgate and Church Stretton but it does lie adjacent to one. Of all the sheela sculptures this is the one that is most copied and photographed

The Church

The name Kilpeck is derived from Kil or Cell and the name of the saint Pedic or Pedoric. The church is dedicated to St Mary and St David. This St David is not the patron saint of Wales but another local St David. The church at Kilpeck is quite fascinating in it’s own right. The ornately carved door contains elements of Celtic, Saxon and even Scandinavian (Viking) art and is seen as the epitome of the Herefordshire school of sculpture. It is built on a seven sided or egg shaped mound which may indicate the site was used in antiquity but this is open to debate. The church is ornately carved with no less than 89 corbels. The Sheela right is the 28th corbel on the south side of the church. Some of the corbels have been removed, this is supposedly due to a Victorian lady who objected to their subject matter, if this is true, why the Sheela remained is something of a mystery. One explanation may be that the carving has been described as a fool opening his heart to the devil. Other corbels, pictured below, are quite curious and often comical (see the dog & hare). Several of the heads depict monsters who appear with human heads in their mouths. All in all Kilpeck church is absolutely fascinating and well worth a visit.

The Figure

The Kilpeck sheela is undeniably the most well known sheela image and is often referred to as a “goddess”. However despite it’s fame (or notoriety) the figure is rarely seen in it’s actual setting. Once we take the sheela in the context of the rest of the carving on the church then it is a good example of a figure which refutes the “goddess” theory. It is one of a series of corbels each of which are examples of sculptural motifs repeated throughout western European churches. The sheela na gig is just another of those motifs, a very memorable one agreed, but just another motif. It’s origin is firmly rooted in medieval Christianity rather than it being some archaic survival of a goddess figure from antiquity.

Folklore

There is short discussion about some dubious folklore surrounding the sheela na gig here. J.M. Forbes of the University of Toronto was told a story explaining the sheela: “an erotic sculpted corbel of a woman at Kilpeck was a carving of the patron’s wife and was put up after the patron refused to pay for the carving at the church.” Forbes also relates that he or she was told more or less the same story at three other sites in England as an explanation for “rude” pieces of sculpture.

Roy Palmer in his book Herefordshire Folklore (Logaston Press 2002) relates the story of an old man in the 1920’s who was apparently present at the destruction of a number of obscene figures. “Ah that wur Miss – – -. A never could suffer that un, so a get her a pole and a pothered un off” Palmer speculates that the figures may have been male exhibitionist figures “in a state of arousal” which led to their destruction by the unnamed Miss – – –

A Phallic Counterpart?

The above story begs the question what offended the Victorian lady so greatly? Roy Palmer conjectures that the corbel held a male exhibitionist possibly in a state of arousal which would be incredibly offensive to the Victorian mindset. This raises another question. Why did the Sheela survive? Again this might be down to the Victorian mindset. George R Lewis did a study of the church in 1842 in his snappily titled Illustrations of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire: In a Series of Drawings Made on the Spot. With an Essay on Ecclesiastical Design and Descriptive Interpretation, described the figure as a fool opening his heart to the devil. It may well be that the destructive Victorian lady saw the Sheela she simply didn’t understand what she was looking at.

Other Sculptures

The Ibex corbel

Malcolm Thurlby puts forward a convincing argument in The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture to link this corbel to the Ibex in medieval bestiaries. The Ibex is portrayed in these bestiaries as having very strong horns which can support the ibex if he falls. The ibex is portrayed as being upside down in these books. This corbel provides evidence that the sculptors used bestiaries as inspiration for motifs and that this piece was intentionally inverted. The church leaflet mentions this corbel but also points out that the figure has antlers rather than the smooth horns that the bestiary portrayals possess and as such this interpretation is open to debate.

The Dog and Hare

The Lovers

The Fiddle Player

The Falling Man or Miser

Bear eating Sinners

Beakhead Eating a Sinner

The Church Website

The church now has a website which discusses the church in detail and has some links to a guided tour of the church.

www.kilpeckchurch.org.uk

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What 3 Words : ///puncture.without.informs

Croft on Tees

The Croft on Tees Sheela resides in the Church of St Peter on the banks of the river Tees.

The Hard to Find Figure

For some reason I spent a long time looking for this sheela despite the fact it is about 2 ft high 1 and half ft wide and right next to the main door. If my friend hadn’t pointed it out I would have walked right past it. As you can see from the pictures it’s quite large and is at head height. Its hard to tell if the sheela was originally moved from somewhere else because the pointing on the walls looks very recent. The stone does seem to fit very well into the door frame although there are smaller stones behind it. It may well be in situ but it is impossible to tell whether or not it’s been moved from somewhere else (Local legends would suggest this is the case, see below). The carving is quite crude and considerably differs from the rest of the carving in the church . The carving has a small deeply incised slit for a vagina which is quite narrow and not immediately obvious. There are the remains of a saxon cross in the church which would seem to indicate that the site has had religious connections for quite some time. When I first visited the figure no mention was made of the sheela in the documentation. Apparently this is not the case as of April 2005 where the figure is described as male???

Male or Female?

The church guide and a number of websites describe this figure “Romano British” and as being male. The evidence for the figure being male is due to damage around the navel of the figure which can be seen in the photograph. No mention is made of the nipples or breasts on the figure which also can be seen in the photograph. Given that the figure has a deep if narrow cleft between the legs which extends up into the body I find the description of the figure as being male a little odd as it has no discernable male characteristics and is very smiliar in features to other sheela na gigs.

The church’s main claim to fame is that Lewis Carroll’s father was the rector there while Lewis was growing up. Both his mother and father are buried in the church yard. The church also has a carving of a grinning cat’s head which from some leaflets in the church is supposed to be the original Cheshire cat. (See below)

Folkore

Updated Feb 2002

Thanks to John Leech who got in touch with the following information on the figure:

“In the late 60’s Rev Littleton used to show the children of the school round the church and tell us loads of things about it. An interesting church with its two family pews, thought to have sprung up as a place of worship for the ford across the Tees of yesteryear. We were told that the carving was an ancient water god that people consulted before braving the water. Well… we were all kids.”

Interestingly the book Twilight of the Celtic Gods also relates this tradition that the figure originally resided on a bridge and was “a local deity of the sea”.

Hard to photograph

There is a tradition that this sheela is very hard to photograph and people have come away with no usable prints. Jorgen Andersen reported this and a newspaper article on the same subject is mentioned in “Twilight of the Celtic Gods” in a chapter entitled “The Curse of the Sheelas”. I was completely unaware of this at the time and happily snapped away coming away with some nice images. I’ve since been contacted by someone who reported the same problem while photographing the figure. He put it down to technical difficulties (which he failed to elaborate on) rather than any supernatural reasons which are hinted at in “Twilight of the Celtic Gods”. Interestingly people with digital cameras don’t seem to have any problems. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had difficulties in photographing this sheela as the stories surrounding seem to be piece of folklore in the making.

Sheela Croft Door — The “hard to find” Sheela???? Right next to the main door

Update Sep 2004

I’ve since been contacted by an American lady, Robin Powers who has travelled around photographing most of the British sheelas. She didn’t have any problems photographing it either and used a film camera. It would definitely seem that these “you cant photograph it” stories are definitely a bit of folklore in the making based on a few failures to photograph a figure in difficult lighting.

Update Dec 2006
I recently visited the figure again and managed to take some higher quality photographs (again with very little trouble). I also took a closer look at the carvings on the sedilla near the altar. The sedilla is of a later date but has some rather odd carvings above the arches including what appears to be a beakhead. There are also a number of other carvings in or on the church including two Saxon cross fragments and some faint allegedly Roman carving set into the church wall.

The sedilla at the church has a number of later carvings, the meanings of which are not immediately obvious. They include a fighting couple, grimacing men, animals and what appears to be a beakhead. The Cheshire Cat carving can be seen on the right of the picture under the grimacing man.

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Gelsted a Sheela na gig in Denmark

Posted on April 2, 2015 by

Evidence has come to light of Romanesque Sheela Na Gig and male exhibitionist type figures in Denmark

The figures are on the base of a font in the church at Gelsted Denmark

Female Exhibitionist Gelsted Church Denmark
Hideko Bondesen – http://www.nordenskirker.dk/ [CC BY-SA 2.5 or CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Male Exhibitionist Gelsted Church Denmark
Hideko Bondesen – http://www.nordenskirker.dk/ [CC BY-SA 2.5 or CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

The church’s website

http://www.nordenskirker.dk/Tidligere/Gelsted_kirke/Gelsted_kirke.htm

The Figure

The Village of Rock

Location

The Figure

The Sheela of the Baskervilles?

Location

Location

Location

The Figure

Connections with the Herefordshire School of Sculpture.

Location

The Figures

Location

The Figure

Location

The Church

The Figure

Folklore

A Phallic Counterpart?

Other Sculptures

The Ibex corbel

The Dog and Hare

The Lovers

The Fiddle Player

The Falling Man or Miser

Bear eating Sinners

Beakhead Eating a Sinner

The Church Website

Location

The Hard to Find Figure

Male or Female?

Folkore

Hard to photograph

Location

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