Inevitably hideous-looking and often mischievous, why do gargoyles and grotesques adorn some of our most solemn churches, asks Ben Lerwill.
Picture the outside of a church. Here’s the porch, here’s the steeple, here’s the parish noticeboard. It’s all very ordered and all very charming — except for the gruesome faces on the roofline. They leer down at us as if they know something we don’t, their nostrils flared and their teeth bared. Some have horns,…
