God save the birds: meet the Tower of London’s ravenmaster
21 October 2020 |
10:46 am
Chris Skaife has one of the most important jobs in Britain: he is the Tower of London's "ravenmaster", responsible for keeping the ravens on site. According to a legend firmly anchored in the British collective imagination, if all the ravens were to leave the tower, the kingdom would collapse and the country be plunged into chaos. During the lockdown put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Skaife faced an unprecedented challenge: he had to find new ways to entertain the birds, who found themselves without visitors to play with or steal food from, raising fears that they might fly away to find something to eat elsewhere and jeopardise the centuries-old legend.
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