Legend
The Bear and the Bible
Sold the Bible to buy a bear.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Bear statues in a market town
- Legend from
- Town legend; town accounts
- Best time
- Wakes week
- Tone
- Comic
Congleton rare, Congleton rare, sold the Bible to buy a bear.
Congleton is known as Beartown. The story goes that one year in the 1600s the town's dancing bear died just before the Wakes. The bear was popular and earned money, and there was no time or cash to buy another. Money had been set aside for a new town Bible, so the Alderman suggested borrowing it to buy a bear, and paying it back from the Wakes takings. This loan grew into the rhyme 'Congleton rare, Congleton rare, sold the Bible to buy a bear'. Wikipedia says the legend is only partly true, because only part of the Bible fund was spent on the bear.