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A cat tries out the world's oldest cat flap at Exeter Cathedral, UK on August 6, 2023. A cat was paid a penny a week in the 15th century to keep down the rats and mice in the north tower and a cat flap was cut into the door below the astronomical clock to allow the cat to carry out its duties. Records of payments were entered in the Cathedral archives from 1305 to 1467, the penny a week being enough to buy food to supplement a heavy diet of rodents. One theory is that the nursery rhyme Hickory, Dickory, Dock began life at Exeter Cathedral. The tale goes that mice would climb the mechanism of a clock hanging on the wall only to meet their doom at the claws of the bishop's cat who would settle at the bottom waiting for them to come down. The battle between cat and mouse is said to have given rise to nursery rhyme. Pictured: Audrey the Cathedral cat belonging to the Director of Music at the Cathedral, pictured using the World's oldest cat flap, which is situated in a door which leads to the Astronomical Clock inside the Cathedral.(Photo by Mark Passmore/Apex News)
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