30/08/26 - The Holdgate Sheela-Na-Gig, Shropshire

You ExhibitionistThe Queen PJ Harvey's second single. I've been listening to it for 34 years. It's taken a trip to deepest Shropshire to find my first one. A tiny church in the tiny hamlet of Holdgate, deep in the Corvedale Valley, in the shadow of the Clee Hills.On the south wall, above the chancel doorIt's rather weathered and a little tricky to decipher. But once you have had it explained to you, it's impossible not to spot. From the Sheela-Na-Gig project;The figure is described by some authors as “pugilistic” which is understandable given the weathering on the figure. In fact what at first seem to be the figure's hands are in fact its knees. The arms are behind the knees with the hand holding the vagina open.No one can quite agree what they are for - a pre-Christian fertility symbol? A warning against lust? Who knows, but you wouldn't necessarily expect them on a church wall. If we wanted to see more of this ilk, we could have headed onwards to the next Hamlet. Tugford also has…