The information on this site has mostly come from first hand visits to the figures except where indicated. The in situ photos below were taken with a 1000mm lens. Permission was granted to the friars to rebuild their friary after a French raid destroyed the original buildings along with most of the town. At the end of the day this carving is simply to worn to make an accurate judgement. Given that they they are nigh invisible from the ground a didactic purpose seems unlikely. There also seems to be some indication of hands pulling a the cleft apart but this not clear. In this drawing the arms are correctly positioned but the figure has acquired a head of hair similar to other figures in the cave and the carved vulva now becomes part of a skirt or shift. The figure holds a crooked staff which has been interpreted as a crozier. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This Shropshire location article is a stub. The site also includes figures which are reported as being Sheela Na Gigs but in fact are other types of Romanesque motifs. If this is an exhibitionist figure then it would be exceptional given the likely date of carving. In this location she’s known as the Hag of the Castle, a name I love. Female figure second left. There are a number of features that count against this. The St Ives Sheela Na GigPhotographs by permission of Anthony Weir. The Anglican parish of Clevedon is part of the Portishead deanery. The Jersey Sheela-na-gig the current church is the third to stand on the site but has been a place of worship for at least 1000 years going back to Saxon times. We should also be a little wary of the satirical explanation as this is one frequently used to explain rude or out of place carvings on churches. New Article on Sheelas at Hyperallergic.com, Female Torso figures from the Rhondda Valleys. This is by necessity a work in progress so please check back to see if any “new” sheelas have been added. This sheela is unusual in that it is accompanied by a number of objects. Brent Knoll church in Somerset dates back to 11th century but the tower on which this carving resides dates from the 14th. While the most common interpretation of a sheela na gig is “a pagan idol” there is little evidence for a pagan connection. It has spent most of it’s time hidden begin a wall which may go some way to explaining its survival. They can be found in the UK, France, Spain,Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and in the former Czech republic. As you can see from the above photograph the legs are indicated either side of the vulva making it distinctly un-skirt like. There is a figure on the font in the church which has been referred to as sheela by the folklorist Ivan Bunn in his list of UK sheelas. Close-up of the head showing the “horns” and scooped out face. This can be seen reflected in the village’s name of “Monkton”. The Sheela Na Gig Project This website aims to address the balance by listing all known figures in the UK complete with photographs and include information on figures from the continent. You have to look at the corbels on the face of the far tower over the roof the cathedral. The figure straddles what appears to be a now damaged bowl. While Ireland has by far and away the most Sheela na gig figures, female exhibitionist figures are very much an international phenomenon. Kilpeck Sheelagh na Gig.jpg 528 × 528; 153 KB. Unfortunately this now means that the figure is essentially lost. Interestingly the Sagitarius/Leo motif is duplicated on the font at Hook Norton including the explicit naming of the figures with inscriptions. One of the more likely theories to explain exhibitionist figures is that they served a didactic purpose warning against sins of the flesh. Interestingly one of these holes is directly between the legs of the sheela (Fig 2) this would have meant that the figure and more to the point the vaginal area would have been directly lit further emphasizing the shock that the figure would have been likely to induce. Since then the population has been in decline and by 1961 it was just 86. There is a “bra” like structure on the chest which could indicate breasts. Whereas there seems to be plenty of data on Irish figures the UK and continental figures are often overlooked. The Kilpeck sheela exhibits all of the defining characteristics that mark a sheela-na-gig, including a bald head, large eyes, and a gaunt torso without breasts. The head has no visible facial features the face itself being a scooped out hollow. Explaining the role of the Sheela na gig in restoring the Divine Feminine, the author shows the Sheela to be an icon that makes visible the cycles of birth, death, and renewal all humans experience and a necessary antidote to centuries of suppression of the primal power of women, of nature, and of the imagination. The Jersey and Ballindon Sheela Na Gigs two new figures Posted on January 5, 2020 Starting off 2020 with a bang we have two new pages on “new” finds from Jersey in the Channel Islands and Ballidon in Derbyshire. The bucolic location is another plus. (see below left). It is at this point that scandal rocks 12th century Europe. If you look at the photograph above you can see that if you draw a vertical line through the vulva it points to beyond the figure’s left shoulder rather than straight up to the head. New Figure Found in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It is very likely that the sheela comes from an earlier 12th century chapel that stood on the site. The imagery in the cave tends to support this theory with some of the carvings being interpreted as events in Templar history. Speaking about the launch of the Sheela-na-Gig map, Beatrice Kelly, Heritage Council Head of Policy & Research, stated, “Sheela-na-Gigs are very evocative symbols of the feminine in old Irish culture and their prominent positions in medieval churches and castles attests to the importance of the female in Irish society. Stukeley attributed a Norman origin to the cave writing shortly after it’s discovery. The late Wendy McKenna local resident and archaeologist. This figure lacks the overt exhibitionism of the Kilpeck and Oaksey figures in much the same way as the earlier Romanesque corbel on the other side of the church. His listing focuses on Scotland, Wales and England … The marriage led to the excommunication of Matthew but not that of Mary which seems to indicate that she was seen as an innocent party in this sacreligious union. The carvings often incorporate ribs showing on the torso and sometimes facial scaring as well, although this feature seems to be more common in Ireland than in mainland Britain and the continent. She was placed in the priory of Stratford-atte-Bow in Middlesex along with a group of nuns from St Sulpice in Rennes who were attend to her upbringing. In fact you have to go out of your way to discover that the figure is indeed exhibitionist at all. A visit repays a good half hour to an hour. Mary began a quiet life at Romsey until 1159 when Mary’s brother William died leaving her the sole heiress of her families estates including Boulogne in France. Sheela Na Gig, Radnorshire Museum, Llandrindod Wells, Wales, UK. The figure however has no clearly defined gentials and has a number of other features which do not fit in neatly with it being a sheela. The carvings are normally found on Churches usually of Norman origin and of Romanesque design, but they can also be found on Secular buildings (e.g. Once again we are faced with the question of the definition of a Sheela na gig. As you can see in the photograph on the left the object does not appear very scissor like. The name Ellery is fairly easy to make out with a possible date of 1865 below. Whereas it’s very hard to determine what the unidentified object is, my personal theory is that it’s a purse ring . Unfortunately this strife was taste of what was to come for the young princess. St Saviours dates from 11th century with a church recorded here in 1087. Kilpeck Church is a fine Norman church, dating from when this part of the world was still part of Wales. As was the custom in the 12th century Mary was dedicated to a religious life as a child by her mother Matilida. The church is the subject of the short story Sheela-na-Gig by British poet, novelist and filmmaker B. S. Johnson. 1): Extraterrestrial-like, bald, and holding her vulva open with both hands.1 Growing up in the 1950s and '60s, I would have had only a limited pornographic context for a figure like the by Copyright Rosalind Le Quesne The carving is not a quick piece of graffiti but a well carved and detailed panel. See the weathering on the Church Stretton Sheela as compared to the surrounding masonry. Sheela Na Gig, Church of St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, England, UK. The hands point at the groin to a crudely incised vulva which does not go all the down to the crotch. Everret Green 1849, Romsey Abbey Through the Centuries by Judy Walker Pendragon Press 1993. From a sheer numbers standpoint, it is Ireland that the claims the most sheela na gig carvings, and the England-Wales border is the home of the best known carving, the sheela of Kilpeck Church. The church has been added to many time over the centuries resulting in a many different features from different times. Headgear is not unknown on Sheela Na Gigs and this adds another figure to list. All articles and photographs are copyright John Harding unless otherwise stated. While I was visiting the figure one of the locals very kindly let me into his garden to have a look at the side of the building and photograph the odd blocked up floor level windows. Henry was of a different family to Mary and so her fortunes dwindled somewhat. Let us know you agree to cookies We use cookies to give you the best online experience. It would have taken a significant amount of time to carve taking a sculptor away from other more visible and authorised work. This sheela-na-gig appears on a corbel on the southwest exterior nave wall of the parish church of Saints Mary and David in Kilpeck, England, near the Welsh border. New Sheela Na Gig Figure found in Ireland. It’s thought that this corbel is a replacement for an original romanesque corbel of a similar design. It has had a varied life serving as a store house in the 1700s. And then – that looks like, oh, yes, it is – a naked woman, exposing her genitals to your gaze. This figure resides in the church of St Savior’s in Jersey. However Richard N Bailey examined this figure close up on scaffolding and dismissed this interpretation in his paper Apotropaic Figures in Milan and North-West England (point 12). Unfortunately it is hard to from the carving which it is meant to be. There is also a hard to identify object in the figure’s left hand which has been identified as shears. Royston Cave is one of the more unusual places in Britain. One odd fact is that the carving was originally in position where it could not be seen easily. The arms of the figure are very odd, as you face the figure the arm on the left terminates in what appears to be a bird head while the right arm dissolves into a curl below the elbow (foliage perhaps? While the figure is undoubtedly exhibitionist is it a sheela? 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