Pocklington is a good place for a nap. It is a sleepy market town whose wealth was originally built on the wool trade and, later, as the centre of sugar beet farms supplying the chocolate factories in York.
Pocklington is dominated by its church, All Saint’s, known locally as “The Cathedral of The Wolds” and it is also last resting place of The Flying Man of Pocklington.
According to The Borthwick Institute at York University, “On April 10th 1733, a man leapt from the top of the steeple of Pocklington parish church. He was Thomas Pelling, the Flying Man. A rope had been attached to the top of the tower, with the end wound into a windlass near to the Star Inn on Market Street. Straps had been inserted into iron rings on the rope and wrapped around his chest and one leg, leaving his arms and one leg free for balance. He was wearing a set of wings designed to make him look like a bat”.
Unfortunately for the bat-like Pelling, the rope became slack “mid-flight” and his frantic gesticulations for the windlass to be tightened were misunderstood and it was loosened instead, causing Pelling to lose his balance and dash his brains out on the east end of the chancel.
With a degree of the pragmatism for which Yorkshire is justly famous, Pelling was buried where he lay but is commemorated to this day at Pocklington’s annual Flying Man Festival.
Sadly, Sheila will not be able to take part in this year’s festival as it took place in early May but we think she would have enjoyed watching the main event, which is when local children are allowed to throw their teddy bears off the church roof…
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