History: as poor as St
Swithun’s church mice
By Caroline Metcalfe
MANY people know the saying ‘as poor
as a church mouse’ – rather fewer that
St Swithun’s has two of them. If you
walk round the outside of St Swithun’s
church, just past the Church Hall and
Parish Office you will come to a door on
your right, on the North wall of the
church.
And right at the bottom you will find two carved mice running in opposite
directions – a lovely feature for young children to find.
The door comes from the workshop of Robert
Thompson, in Kilburn, North Yorkshire who made oak
furniture. By tradition Thompson and a colleague said
that although they made beautiful furniture for others,
they were ‘as poor as church mice’.
So from about 1919, the church mouse became a
trademark symbol for Thompson’s workshop.
Thompson himself lived from 1876-1955 but his
workshop is still run by his descendants and has a
showroom for visitors, beside the parish church.
Thompson was part of a revival of craftsmanship in the 1920s inspired by the Arts
and Crafts movement of William Morris, John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle.
Thompson was the son of the village carpenter and stonemason. He rejected
‘modern’ tools and preferred to use the adze for shaping and smoothing wood. This
door has a distinctive surface and you can easily imagine a craftsman working to
smooth it.
* This is the latest in a series Caroline will be writing for us about the
often overlooked artefacts, graves and paintings of our parish church.