Elephant gargoyle

Our village has very little of note for the tourist but this appears in some guidebooks, mentioned in passing. This elephant gargoyle is on the church tower. It is the only gargoyle that I know in this form, and is contemporary with the tower which probably dates from the late 1300s. Did the people who carved this head ever see a real elephant? It's unlikely, but they would have been familiar with its illustration in the bestiaries, the inspiration for many of their grotesque and fantastic gargoyle faces that adorn our churches and cathedrals. The lead spout formed into the animal's trunk catches your eye when you look upwards, and probably dates from the church's Victorian restoration. However, I like to think that it was the medieval sculptors who first fitted one when they placed the head here, as the exit for water draining from the top of the tower.