Philip had restored the cockerel in 2007 after it had been hit by a lightning strike in the early 2000s and then taken to a workshop in Swansea to be rebuilt.

It was made in 1792 of Swansea copper by John Rudge of Ross-on-Wye. The copper was from the Swansea Vivian copper works which also supplied the same copper to the Royal Navy. The same copper was used to sheath the hulls of ships like HMS VICTORY which made them sail better, preventing weed growth on the hulls thus streamlining them through the water and a great help at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The cockerel was also given a makeover in 1882.

After the lightning strike in the early 2000s it was taken down from the top of the spire by steeplejacks and the pieces taken to their North Somerset works. The top twelve feet of the spire was found to be unstable and so after many years with funds raised the spire was restored around 2010.

The architect was planning to have a new, smaller cockerel made to replace the old one, but Philip disagreed and managed, eventually after much searching, to find the remains of the old one in a workshop bin in Somerset just in time before it was lost forever.

He was brought back to Wales over the old Severn Bridge in Philip's Landrover, propped up in his passenger seat so he could see the view from the Severn Bridge. He was later taken him back to Swansea, over the Heads of the Valleys, and rebuilt him there. He was two years older than the 1794 Mumbles Lighthouse, which is still there also.

Once the spire stonework had been rebuilt, the cockerel was returned to his lofty perch 66 metres above Monmouth. Just prior to that he was regilded with a gold leaf which had been funded by the donations given at the funeral of the late Philip J Mathew of Glendower Street and former school master of Monmouth School, and also Philip's former house master of Weirhead House in Monmouth School in the 1970s.

“

I am proud to say that without my endeavour Monmouth would have lost a key character of the town forever, namely the St Mary’s church cockerel. To think that he has stood over the town since 1792.

What has that cockerel seen? It certainly heard Emma Hamilton sing Rule Britannia when Nelson and Emma stayed at the Beaufort Hotel in August 1802. And even Charles Rolls flying his balloon ‘Midget’ from the Mayhill gas works in the early 1900s. Then the coming, and the going, of the railways and eventually the arrival of the dual carriageway. Sometime in its existence it had been shot through its tail. A small patch is testimony to that. Long may the cockerel continue to grace the spire of St Mary’s church in Monmouth. You are lucky to have him! He is something to crow about.

Philip Chatfield

To date Philip has only found one other John Rudge cockerel. It sits atop the spire of St Giles church at Goodrich, however it has lost both legs and has no wings.