Cheese-roller gargoyle to grace Gloucester Cathedral
Work is under way to create a sculpture of a gargoyle depicting the famous annual cheese rolling competition.
The 3ft tall grotesque figure is due to be installed on the roof of Gloucester Cathedral as part of a £400,000 restoration scheme of the North Ambulatory.
The gargoyle will be the sixth and final sculpture installed at the 900-year-old Norman cathedral, with the others including a rugby player, a jockey and a suffragette.
Speaking last year, master mason Pascal Mychalysin, who designed the “bonkers” cheese chaser, said it was “loosely inspired by Germaine Greer having a row”.
The new gargoyles have been designed to represent Gloucestershire’s six districts.
The cheese-roller is the gargoyle for Tewkesbury, marking the death-defying races down Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth.
A rugby player with a broken nose and cauliflower ears is the Gloucester statue, while Cheltenham is represented by a tearful jockey grasping the Gold Cup.
The gargoyle inspired by suffragette Annie Kenney pays tribute to the forgotten women of the Stroud mills.
A freeminer was designed to represent the Forest of Dean and a sheep shearer for the Cotswolds.
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