Montacute's Hunky Punks

If you look up at the parapet at the top of Montacute House, you will see a lot of strange little animals sitting on it (a few examples can be seen in the photograph above). These are "hunky punks", which according to Wikipedia is a local dialect word for a grotesque stone carving. Hunky punks are most often seen on churches, but Montacute has them as well. Montacute's hunky punks take the form of rather cute-looking animals – either chimeras (combinations of different animals) or completely imaginary species. They are the 16th century equivalent of funny cartoon animals!