Tinners' Rabbits
The drawing of a March hare on the cover of last month's "Crier"
reminded me of a drawing of three hares (or perhaps rabbits) running in a
tail-chasing circle. Each hare has two ears, one of which is shared with the
animal behind him, and the other with the animal in front. So there only three
ears visible in the group, and these form a central triangle. In the Middle
Ages tin-mining and smelting was a flourishing industry in the west country,
and at this period many new churches were being built in Devon and Cornwall.
The local carpenters frequently carved into the roof-bosses of the church the
triangular design of rabbits' ears. Tinners adopted the motif, as they too,
dug in the earth like rabbits; and the trio of rabbits became known as
"tinners' rabbits".
I found this same motif in a stained-glass window in Long Melford Church, in Suffolk, south of Bury St. Edmund's, a long way away from the west-country origin, and from mining of any kind.