Exeter Cathedral Has the World’s Oldest Known ‘Cat Door’, Which Has Been Serving the Cats Since the 14th Century

This 14th-century door located at Exeter Cathedral in the UK is believed to be the earliest known example of a cat flap. Historical records from the medieval period reveal that cats had significant roles within various cathedrals, as they were tasked with keeping the premises free of mice. These cats were even included on the payroll, with funds allocated to support their food if their mouse-catching performance fell short.

In the financial records of Exeter Cathedral, it is documented that during the 15th century, they had a resident cat designated for mouse control, earning approximately one penny per week (equivalent to thirteen pennies every quarter). Notably, between 1363 and 1366, the quarterly payment for this feline doubled to twenty-six pence, indicating the possibility that the cathedral temporarily bolstered its mousing efforts by employing a second cat.

Amazing Photos of the Eschif, a Toll Bridge Which Was Built in Périgueux, France in 1347

The Eschif in Périgueux, France was a lookout for a toll bridge. It’s an oak timber frame building with wattle and daub infill built in 1347.

The Eschif is located in Périgord, in the center of the Dordogne department, in Périgueux. It is a building located at 9 boulevard Georges-Saumande, at the corner of rue Tourville, in the protected area, on the edge of the Isle, a hundred meters south-east of the Saint-Front cathedral.

Although it has never been used as a mill, the Eschif is wrongly called “Old mill” or “mill of the Chapter” or even “mill of Saint-Front.” The confusion comes from the nearby mill of Saint-Front which was in the middle of the Isle and which was demolished in 1860.

A lookout post which in the Middle Ages would allow the surveillance of the Tournepiche bridge, the Eschif was built in 1347 on the ramparts of Puy-Saint-Front (the medieval city corresponding to the historic center of Périgueux) at the foot of which the Isle s was flowing. It is built on the site of a house in Creyschat, destroyed the previous year following a flood of the Isle.

In 1860, the ramparts were destroyed to allow the construction of the imperial road 21 from Paris to Barèges (the current boulevard Georges Saumande).

In 1929, the Eschif was listed as a historical monument under the (erroneous) name of the Saint-Front mill. This registration was canceled in 1977 and replaced by a classification as historical monuments. It has belonged to the city of Périgueux since 1976.

The Eschif has retained its half-timbering and cob. The building seems to hold miraculously on a thin support to which it is connected by struts on its two longitudinal facades. These are often wooden works that were temporarily established if time or resources were lacking to raise towers.

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13 Hilarious and Sexist Dating Tips for Single Women From 1938

The only keys to successful dating in the 1930s for single women were don’t talk too much, wear a bra, and don’t pass out in the middle of your date because you’re drunk...

Originally this article was published on Parade Magazine in 1938 and that’s how they thought single women should act back then. The key to getting a fella to put a ring on it in decades past was all about keeping your emotions, lady secrets, and basically any indication of a personality or individual humanity at bay (and also sitting properly). Unless you want to be left single and alone, with no one to love you. And in the late 1930s, you didn’t want to be “that woman.”

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“U.S. mating habits have undergone quite a change in the last generation, and the change is worrying leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. Far from being charged with lack of seriousness and fickle habits, youth is now being reproved for being too serious and not fickle enough. Instead of using their adolescent years to meet as many of the opposite sex as possible, to learn their ways and appraise their worth, teenagers are trending more and more to ‘go steady.’

By definition, boys and girls who go steady dance together exclusively (cutting in is frowned upon), sip their sodas, absorb their double features, and spin their platters in each other’s company or not at all. Steady-going girls indicate their unavailability in various ways, ranging from the old-fashioned fraternity pins and class rings to certain arrangements of pigtails or bobby pins. Parents often encourage these relationships as stabilizing or ‘cute.’ But Catholic authorities view them as a danger to morals so serious that last month the principal of St. Anthony’s parochial high school in Bristol, Conn. expelled four students for going steady, and the current issues of two Catholic magazines attack the custom.”

It’s likely that having stable monogamous relationships would have led to physical intimacy before marriage, which was something parents and the church did not want. It’s also reasonable to assume that one-night stands or hookups were not as prevalent as they are today.

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