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Object type: Animal-head label stop
Measurements: H. (max.) 25.5 cm (10 in); (head) 11 cm (4.3 in); W. (at the front of the jaws) 24.5 > 21 cm (9.6 > 8.3 in); D. (neck) 21 cm (8.3 in); (at the top of the head) 24 cm (9.4 in)
Stone type: Greyish orange (10YR 7/4) slightly shelly oolite, sparry matrix supported. Hollow ooliths 0.5 to 1.0 mm occasionally 1.5 mm. Shell debris c. 3 mm. Cleeve Cloud Member, Birdlip Limestone Formation, Inferior Oolite Group, Middle Jurassic.
Plate numbers in printed volume: Ills. 708-12
Corpus volume reference: Vol 10 p. 371-2
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Hopkins (1887–8) makes no specific reference to the discovery of this head, but a newspaper report of the reopening of the church (—) 1889, 9) refers to the discovery of two heads during the restoration.
Animal-head label stop (or possibly a corbel). This is the second of the crude pair of animal heads from this little church, although it is significantly wider than no. 1. The 'neck' of the creature has been broken off, but, as with no. 1, it was presumably designed to be built into the wall so that the head hung down flush with the wall face. As with no. 1, the open, rather square jaws are full of square teeth clenched on to the tip of the creature's tongue. A nasal ridge runs down the centre of the front face (the top) of the beast. The nasal ridge tapers from the nostrils up towards the top of the head, where there are two small round eyes close beside the nasal ridge. On either side of the nasal ridge the top of the jaws is covered with parallel, inscribed diagonal lines, presumably a rather simplistic imitation of the muzzles of other animal-head carvings (e.g. Deerhurst St Mary 13, 14, 16–19 or Ripple 1 and 2: see Ills. 175–87, 191–210, 648–51).
See Wyre Piddle 1.
