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*The Tiger Who Came to Manordeifi*

In 1852, Captain Charles Colby was deployed in Rawalpindi, India (now Pakistan), when he was mauled by a tiger and died from his wounds. His coffin was sent back to his home parish of Manordeifi, Pembrokeshire for burial...

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📸 @V_and_A
According to local lore, Colby's family initially believed he had been killed in action. However, when the coffin arrived it was oddly shaped and smelled peculiar, so Colby’s family decided to open it and they discovered ... not a man, but the remains of a tiger!

2/3
They sent a telegraph to India explaining there must have been a mistake. A return telegraph read simply: "Tiger in box. Sahib [Captain Colby] in tiger".

A memorial to the unfortunate Captain Colby can be found in Manordeifi Old Church.

#FolkloreThursday

3/3
The mechanical tiger organ in first image is Tippoo's Tiger:
m.vam.ac.uk/collections/it…

Used here for illustration only, apologies if misleading.
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Friendless Churches
@friendschurches
The parish church is a time-crash. It’s a headrush of place. It’s past and present and future bundled into one building. The parish church puts our small lives into context.
The parish church is not like a castle or a pub. It is the spiritual investment of generations.

#thread
Not only the spiritual investment but also the artistic investment and the accretion of human endeavour.

The nave at East Hatley was built in 1217. To make their church, local people picked pebbles and cobbles out of the earth and bound them in mud and lime and sand.

2/8
What is sand but the past pulverised? It’s a mountain, a boulder formed millions of years ago, eroded down to the tiniest particle. The grains are tiny manifestations of ancient landscapes.

3/8
Read 9 tweets
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Friendless Churches
@friendschurches
In the Middle Ages, babies were exorcised in the church porch. This took place before baptism, to banish the devil from the new-born so it could be brought safely into the church. But a myth about babies, devils, baptism and north doors persists…

#thread #folklorethursday
North doors in churches are often referred to as the ‘devil’s door’.

Popular folklore tells us that the north door was left open during baptism so that, once it left the baby, the devil could make a speedy exit from the church.

2/7
But the exorcism in the porch beforehand was supposed to have cleansed the baby of the devil?

Something doesn't add up.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
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Friendless Churches
@friendschurches
On a roadside outside Halifax is a tower. It’s a landmark, but it looks a little lost. Inside is a plaque remembering a woman called Ann. Until recently few knew who this woman was, or why she's important. Her memorial, hanging in the dark tower, wasn’t of much interest.

#thread
Until the 1970s, the tower was attached to rather grand Georgian church. The church had been funded largely by William Walker, Ann’s grandfather. The edifice of 1775 was demolished in 1974, but we managed to save the tower, and rescued the Walker family monuments.

2/7
In 1832, Ann fell in love with her neighbour, Anne Lister.The couple worshipped side-by-side at Lightcliffe church, sharing a velvet-lined box pew.

3/7
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