A small tale to tell.

 For a couple of years now I have been aware that the church in one of the villages where I work has a single carving high up on its tower. All I could make out with the naked eye was that it was some type of figure that was rather rudely sticking its tongue out. I had to inwardly smile at all the villagers going to the services with this rather vulgar fellow directly above them and noone having the faintest idea! Last summer I attempted to take a photo to find out what it looked like, but it was just too far away for my little press and point, so I remained none the wiser.

At long last the perfect opportunity presented itself as Mr GBT had chosen one of the fancy free walks for us to do [photos tomorrow] and it just so happened to pass through Rudgwick. I specially requested that he bring his all singing all dancing camera with a view to taking a photo once. He's nothing if not an obliging chap and with much excitement I was able to finally see the detail of the piece.

As it turned out, it was rather more exciting than I had imagined it was because it's a mouth puller and there are hardly any in this area of West Sussex [I've seen them in other parts of the country] and I only know of one other near here. This one may well be 13th century and they are always a little controversial in some quarters because they are supposed to indicate sexual carnality. I have tried to find out more about this one, but there seems to no record let alone any close up images. With this in mind I emailed a Sussex historian whose has an abiding interest in all things quirky and unusual. She confirmed that she had no knowledge of it either and was very excited by my discovery. The upshot of our conversation is that she's going to travel across when she's permitted to do so to see it for herself and then write up an article about it for the Sussex Archaeological Collections. I'm so glad I decided to share it!

Arilx