Mary Dormer Harris, the local historian thought that the elephant had a religious symbolism. The ancient “Bestiaries” works of unnatural Natural History, treat animals as religious types, and it is from these works that many of the animals and birds in church architecture derive.
The elephant is seen, not only as a beast so strong that he can carry a tower–Coventry’s castle–full of armed men, but also a symbol of Christ’s redemption of the human race. The animal, according to one of the “Bestiary” stories, is supposed to sleep standing, leaning against a tree.
