Stone, a bird, and a man in a top hat

This stone is an example of 19th century rock art (graffiti) at an ironstone industrial railway site in the North York Moors – it shows a man in a top hat, and a bird.  Someone has spent time in carefully carving out this image, it is no idle sketch, there are charming details, feathers on the bird’s wing and I love the expression on both the bird’s and the man’s face.

The image is from the official blog of the North York Moors National Park – in Beth Davies’ recent post ‘Historical curios and curious patterns’ where she explores a number of carved stones.  There’s a stone which she believes to be an egg cooler (I might make one of these for my goose eggs!), a stone apple press, and examples of the cup and ring carvings too.

This bird was my favourite though – I do hope it gets away from the gruff top hat!