Dragons? In Taunton?

Visiting our county town Taunton the other day, we suddenly spotted a colourful dragon, just sitting there, smiling at passers-by, hoping they would feed him pennies. Apparently he and his brothers and sisters are all about the town; in fact I think I had already walked past one without realising it, before I noticed the fine chap not far from the big grindstone from a cider mill on display near the castle.

I’m not sure how all this started, maybe it was the Kansas Cow parade where near life-sized replica cows decorated in amazing and amusing ways appeared first in Kansas, then in other cities, I first saw them in Dublin, many years ago, but since then various towns and cities have had a representative animal, painted in all sorts of ways, placed around the town or city, to entertain and to raise money. There were pigs in Bath,gorillas then Gromits in Bristol, donkeys in Weston and now dragons in Taunton.

Why dragons, I wondered? Weston had donkeys because there have been donkeys on the beach here since Victorian times and they are almost iconic; gorillas in Bristol because of the famous chap, Guy who was a resident of Bristol Zoo for many years, and Gromit was created in Bristol. But dragons? Taunton? I discovered that the new emblem for the county flag is a dragon, no doubt based on the Wessex dragon. I’ve been thinking that we’ll go back and try and find some more dragons, but sadly the dragon trail ends today!

Here is more about the dragon flag:

http://britishcountyflags.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/wessex-flag/

… and here is more about the dragons in Taunton:

http://deanedragons.co.uk/the-dragon-trail/meet-the-dragons/