The Pride Of Gloucestershire

Gloucester Cathedral’s master stonemason Pascal Mychalysin has been gifted with the responsibility of designing six new gargoyles, each one depicting a different characteristic of our fine county… yes, they’re grotesque – in the best way possible – but they also show off both Gloucestershire’s finest qualities and that of the mason himself

- Candia McKormack

Gargoyles have had a bad rap over the centuries.

The name stems from the charming Old French word ‘gargouille’, meaning throat – their function is to direct rainwater away from buildings – but they’ve come to be associated with the hideous, the horrific, the monstrous and the macabre. The reason for their frightening appearance, it’s believed, is to ward off evil spirits… standing guard on both sacred and secular buildings, and even coming to life at night, taking flight over the landscape to protect the sleeping and vulnerable.

A picture recently appeared on Gloucester Cathedral’s Twitter feed of the ‘angry young man’ gargoyle (sited in 2013) spouting water in the torrential storms we’ve had recently. And it was doing its job magnificently, looking much like a youth leaving a city centre pub, three sheets to the wind, and not quite making the bathroom in time. Spectacular, projectile rainwater vomit.

This fine young fellow is the work of the Cathedral’s master stonemason, Pascal Mychalysin, who has been based there nearly 30 years, training nearly 40 masons in its workshop during his time. The workshop is one of only nine attached to cathedrals in England, and the quality of the work produced is held is exceedingly high esteem.

And now Pascal and his team have been given the opportunity to produce six new gargoyles for the cathedral – each one based on a different area of the county – all to be installed on the North Ambulatory roof as part of a £530,000 restoration project.

On entering the workshop and meeting the gargoyle that’s to represent Gloucester – a particularly fierce-looking Cherry and White Kingsholm rugby player named, of course, ‘Glaaaawster’ – I mention the absence of teeth to Pascal.