The Friday Photo: St Philip’s Cathedral, weathervane
Has anyone else spent time looking at St Philip’s cathedral and wondered why it has a pig on its weathervane? St Philip’s was built by commission in the early 1700s. The church was consecrated in 1715 but the tower remained unfinished due to a lack of funds. A merchant tradesman, Sir Richard Gough who lived in Edgbaston, managed to secure a donation of £600 from King George I to enable completion of the tower. The tower was completed in 1725 and a gilt weathervane of a boar was erected atop the tower. The boar features in the Gough family crest and was added as lasting recognition of Sir Richard’s role in the tower being finished.
I love this Clare never knew that! Well spotted
I have to be honest and say that I had never taken notice of the weathervane on St Philip’s before. But isn’t it interesting! And what a great photo too – can’t be very recent, though, with that ominous sky?
The Friday Photo has proved so popular, and the photos are so good, that we are going to produce a Birmingham Conservation Trust calendar using them. That will mean choosing the best twelve. When they are all so good, how are we going to do that? Answers on a postcard please – or in these days, on this website. We’ll think of something….