What the heck is a lek?
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
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A Medieval encaustic (inlaid) floor tile from Bradenstoke Priory, Bradenstoke, Wiltshire. The design features a cockerel facing left with two annulets. The priory was founded in 1142 near a holy well in Bradenstoke, and this tile, which dates to between the 13th and 14th century (1200-1399 BCE), would have been installed at a later date.
An encaustic (or inlaid) floor tile was made by a design carved out on a wood block, which would be pressed into the wet tile clay. The recess was then filled with a lighter clay and then levelled off. This lighter clay had to be dug out in the spring or summer and left over winter to allow the impurities to wash away. It then had to be pounded to create fine sand and to push the air out to prevent cracking in the clay.
This process was lengthy, making the product expensive, and was therefore only used in important buildings such as palaces and ecclesiastical buildings, including Augustinian monasteries such as Bradenstoke Priory. Other similar tiles can be found in this period, where the tile design was simply painted on using white slip.
The monastery survived destruction during the Dissolution of Henry VIII, but was dismantled when it was purchased in 1925.
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!