Rampaging Toad

In Berkeley, Gloucester, in the chancel of St. Mary's Church, there is a carving of a large toad on the tomb of an important Berkeley family. Beneath it are the carvings of the heads of two small children. Legendarily, a monstrous toad arose from a nearby mire and rampaged through the country. It devoured two small children.

What has been misinterpreted is a corbel carving of two gossips with a toad overhead. Toads were thought to be poisonous, and this was a symbol of the spiritual poisoning that attended the idle gossipers. But to the unsophisticated, unwashed congregation, these were clearly two children who had been devoured by a toad.