Green Man or not Green Man?

David Williams sent me some pictures of this fascinating figure from St Peter’s Church, Tichfield in Hampshire. It is a capital supporting the archway in the west porch. I visited this church myself back in April of this year to photograph this figure and verify it for the gazetteer. It was originally reported as a green man by Clive Hicks in his gazetteer and I must admit I went along with the description…but should I have?

David commented that “it is not a “Green Man” as it is non-foliate, but an interesting version of the genre. The Church literature describes it as a “Sea Monster” but makes no reference apart from that. I believe that this is unusual as carved heads normally physically spew water as part of their function.
Some carvings of Neptune have this feature, but the Titchfield one lacks the beard that is common on Neptune sculptures.”

And so is it time to look again at those few green men who do not feature easily recognisable foliage in any way and exclude them from the gazetteer? I would love to hear our members views and so have added a poll below..Green Man or not Green Man? I would also love to hear your thoughts via the comments link on this post.