Old Joke

Everyone has heard of "the green man" - a term applied to medieval church carvings found all over Europe, depicting a face sprouting twigs and leaves in place of hair and beard. There is an assumption - without much evidence - that the green man is an integration into church icons of an earlier folk or pagan deity, making it easier for people steeped in pre-Christian beliefs to accept the "new religion"

These ideas don't have very deep provenance. They were set out in 1939 by an amateur folklorist aristocrat, who rolled together these carvings with the myths of Robin Hood, Jack o' the Green and the figure of the May King, and declared them all to be manifestations of a figure she christened 'the Green Man'. The carvings had already made a cross-over into some secular architecture, and the images had been adopted by the hugely popular Arts & Crafts movement. Neo-pagans have also enthusiastically embraced this apparently pre-Christian figure. Real historians protest that there is very little evidence for the ancient origin of 'foliate heads', as they were originally called, but this cuts little ice, and this is maybe a good example of an idea that's too good to be not true

The carving at the bottom of the picture is described in notes in the church as "a sheep vanquishing a lion" - also open to debate, I'd say - and as "a joke" on the part of the architect or mason. I wonder. This rare octagonal porch was built in the 15th century. St Mary's, Chipping Norton is a prime example of a Cotswold "wool church", funded by the obscene wealth that was generated for landowners by diplacing peasant farmers and replacing them with extensive sheep-grazing, resulting in widespread destitution.  Around here, sheep are referred to as 'The Cotswold Lion'. Might a sardonic craftsman have depicted this one as savaging a landless peasant?

Done another test. Emphatically positive