Wigan Album

Why a rat?

I wonder if the rat emblem was anything to do with the plague..

Thanks Rev Long, the number of times I have looked at this spire even from my garden not to mention the many pictures taken, I have never noticed this weather vane. I had assumed there was just a lightening rod up there!
Perhaps I should have gone to Specsavers!!

Not only has 'The Standish Owl ' made interesting reading, that is a cracking photo Rev Long !

Why an owl and a rat? In heraldry the owl is associated with wisdom, and the rat with industrious activity - always being on the hunt for food. Although rats have been associated with plagues (though it is now thought mistakenly), plagues are rare events - but rats invading food sources, particularly grain stores, would have been the everyday experience of folk. The owl is known as an efficient hunter of rats, and it seems probable that it was this attribute which is being celebrated in the Standish crest, rather than their wisdom. Whether there is a tale to be told about the allusion is unknown - unlike the legend which gave rise to the Stanley family adopting the Eagle and Child (also to be found depicted in St Wilfrid's) as their emblem.

Never mind “grain”, they love Mars Bars.
Rats that is, not Owls. Or Sheppies.