Canterbury door knockers are of a wide variety of styles:
A) hand and laurel wreath, often with a small lion head – known as the Wellington door knocker, the hand of the “immortal hero” grasps a field marshall’s baton and the wreath of victory; the lion represents British valour in overcoming tyranny . For details click here.
B) lion heads – note that the first three examples have become known as “Regency Lions” while the last example (with fiery unkempt hair) has become popular as the “Number 10 Downing Street” knocker
C) classical images – Dionysus; Mercury; a sea deity; the Gorgon Medusa
D) two ladies’ hands; eagle; woodpecker
E) a dragonfly; a bat and and two Adams-style urns
F) Adams-style urn; Dover College shield with its motto non recuso laborem – “I do not refuse the task” ; shell; Lincoln Imp, based on the grotesque in Lincoln Cathedral that is the emblem of that city
G) a fox’s head; bell pull; piping cherub by Kenrick & Co, 1883, with musical insturments on the backplate; a design inspired by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), a leader of the nineteenth century aesthetic movement
H) keyhole cover and knocker; John Peel; man’s head at the Parrot Inn, St Radigans – perhaps the oldest knocker in the city; and urn with acanthus leaf
