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NY9257 : St. Helen's Church, Whitley Chapel (2)

"Over the little tower, within which swings the bell of St. Helen’s, telling the dalesmen of the service for the day, or tolling their parting knell, is perched, not a weather-cock as is so usual in church symbolism, but the figure of a fish.

How old this particular fish is the inhabitants cannot tell, it was on the old church before this one was built, and this is very old. That is all they know."

The Rev. J Hudson Barker in Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church, Ed. William Andrews, London (1897) pp. 71-77

He goes on to discuss the symbolism of the fish in Christianity.