The return of the Croft lions.

In December 2008 I posted the sad news that two of the little lions that support the base of the fifteenth century lectern at Croft in Lincolnshire had been stolen.  The third couldn't be taken as it was soldered to the bottom of the lectern.  A very sad loss indeed and I think we all assumed that they were lost forever.  Recently a gentleman called Paul Wortley contacted me via Flickr to say that he had bought a pair of old brass lions at a car boot sale and in researching their origin had come across my Blog and photos of the lions on Flickr and had discovered through the information I had posted that they were from Croft.   Here are the lions on Paul's hearth at home shortly after he had bought them.

Paul has very generously returned the lions to Croft church and we are delighted to say that they will soon be reinstated where they belong and this fine late medieval lectern will be once more be complete again. Thanks Paul.

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ORIGINAL POST FROM DECEMBER 2008.



Croft, Lincolnshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.
Yesterday I drove down to Croft near Skegness ostensibly to photograph the glorious fifteenth century brass eagle lectern that the church has. There are only two dozen of these in the country. My existing photos, as you will see, are pretty rubbish. When I got there the church, which is normally open, was locked. Sadly the church is locked at the moment because sometime over the summer some unscrupulous individual stole two of the lions that support the base of the lectern. They would have taken the third as well, except that it is soldered to the base.



So if any of you see a couple of small medieval brass lions for sale do let me know. It would be great if the church could recover them.