This window was designed and made as a community project started in 2020, part of the Bishop’s Castle Arts Festival and early in the development of the ‘March of the Elephants’ town trail. The town has an historic association with Clive of India and the elephant is shown in the Clive Coat of Arms now standing in the town square. Older townsfolk also remember ‘Lizzie’, an elephant abandoned by a circus at the outbreak of the second World War and who lived in Bishops Castle for some years!
The window shows Lizzie walking across the heather-covered hills of Shropshire. Centred on the ‘bishop’s castle’, (one of the historic seats of the Bishops of Hereford), it includes over eighty small vignettes, painted by members of the community, adults and children, representing aspects of town life; wildlife, activities, landmarks, even the long-lost railway.
Sadly, because of the Covid pandemic, the project was delayed and only picked up again in the spring of 2023 when some final pieces were painted to illustrate recent events, such as the colours of the Ukrainian flag in her head dress and even coronaviruses and a masked face on her toenails!
The window which now hangs in the Town Hall, celebrates the town’s diverse character and the artistic talents of its residents, marking its history and its present place in time.
