Riddle of Bishop's Castle's bull on the loose

The creature was loose on the streets guarded by what may be intended to be a matador, but looks a lot more like a Cossack.

Paula Middleton of the shop H. Gwyther & Son Ltd at 31-33 Church Street in the town emailed in this photo after coming across it among some paperwork at the shop.

"I've just realised that it's a bullfighter theme. Perhaps your readers might be interested in the scene from 'old Bishop's Castle' and all the better if anyone can shed light on who these people were, especially those dressed up as the bull!" she says.

"Knowing Bishop's Castle folks, the theme was probably topical at the time and they may have been having a bit of fun at somebody's expense. It would be nice to know if there was a joke or an incident behind that.

"It was taken outside our old shop premises, at 57 Church Street in Bishop's Castle, previously known as the Red Lion pub, which my parents bought in 1957, so it dates from about then. They moved to the present building in about 1964.

"Before they married, my father used to lodge at the Red Lion during the week and from the early 1950s his shop was in a little building in Harley Jenkins Street, behind R L Phillips' shop, now the Co-op."

Paula's parents were Robert and Shirley Gwyther, with her father dying a year ago.

"Judging from the scene in the picture, it was probably carnival day, which was a highlight of the year and used to be held on a Wednesday in July, when Wednesday was half day for most of the shops in town."

Paula added: "The shop is still H. Gwyther & Son, as it was then and it was a shoe shop. Nowadays we sell clothing and household linens as well. It sort of evolved - as other shops in Bishop’s Castle closed, we started to stock some of the lines to fill the gap."