A BRONZE bust of Cardinal Wolsey and one of his much loved cats has been unveiled in St Peter's Church in Marlborough.

The bust and cat are situated in an ancient doorway set into the south wall of the chancel in the church. The two bronzes were a gift from former trustee, David Sherratt, of the Trust which runs St Peter's Church.

Thomas Wolsey was ordained in St Peter's in 1498.

The door where the statues sit may have been one of the original doorways on the 15th century church which had been completed only about thirty years before Wolsey's ordination.

Quite what his connection with the church was at the time is unknown - the most likely explanation is that it was roughly halfway between Oxford where Wolsey was curate, and Salisbury, where his ordaining bishop came from.

The bust and the cat are copies of a full length statue in Ipswich, the town of his birth. He was also a lover of cats - they travelled with him on his many diplomatic and ecclesiastical trips abroad.