Christopher Skaife - The Great Escape

 

I am one of 37 yeoman warders, commonly known as beefeaters, that live and work within the ancient fortress the Tower of London, right in the heart of London. The Tower of London has a great history, but it has some ancient myths and legends. One of the legends tells us that should the raven leave the Tower of London, it will crumble into dust and a great harm will befall our kingdom. 

 

Now, we keep six raven at the Tower of London by royal decree, just in case. [audience laughter] Derrick Coyle was the Ravenmaster. He came to me one day and he said, “Chris, would you like to join my raven team, become one of my assistants?” He must have seen me watching the raven hopping around Tower Green and around the scaffold site and thought that I might have had some interest in them. He said to me, “Boy,” he said, “I think the raven might like you.” [audience laughter] I thought to myself, why did he call me boy? [audience laughter] I was 40 years old at the time. [audience laughter] 

 

To be a yeoman warder, you have to have done a minimum of 22 years in the military, be the rank of a warrant officer and have an exemplary military record. And secondly, how did he know that the ravens would like me? So, I was quite curious. He invited me to go down to the raven enclosure one evening. There were two massive ravens inside the enclosure. Just to give you an example of how big a raven is, it's three and a half times the size of a large crow or the size of a small eagle and just as powerful. 

 

And Derrick said to me, “I'm going to introduce you to the raven. Get in the cage.” [audience laughter] And so, I did. I stood there, not really knowing what to do. This large raven, it was massive, it was the size of a harpy, started to move towards me, shuffling its way along its perch. It got closer and closer and closer. I could see its beady little eyes looking at me. It tilted its head to one side. I could almost feel its breath on my face. [audience laughter] Then Derrick said, “Get out.” [audience laughter] And I did, quite quickly. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Chris. the raven like you.” [audience laughter] That is how I became part of the Ravenmaster’s team. He took me under his wing. [audience laughter] 

 

Derrick Coyle taught me everything I know about ravens. He taught me how to clean the enclosure, he taught me how to feed the raven, such delights as mice and rats and chicks and he taught me how to clean the enclosure and how to clean the enclosure. And that's really all he really taught me what to do. 

 

October 11th, 2010. It was a cold, crisp autumn morning. I was really excited. It was my first ever raven duty. My alarm went off, I got up, got out of bed, got myself dressed, made my way out of my little house that just happens to be tucked inside the outer defensive walls of the Tower of London. Yes, I live there. I made my way up a spiral staircase and onto Tower Green. I stood there for a moment, just absorbing the ambience of the place. I could hear the trees rustling. And in the far distance, a siren went past, a reminder that I was actually standing in ancient fortress. But I was sharing London with nine million other souls. 

 

I looked up at the White Tower. It was wrapped in scaffold and canvas. We were doing part of a four-year project of cleaning and repairing it. And this year, it was the turn of the western side to be actually cleaned. In fact, the only part of the western side that could be seen was a weather vane and a large gold crown right at the top of one of the tower's four turrets. However, the workmen had been making a lot of noise, and the clanging of the scaffold poles and the tap, tap, tapping of the stonemason's mallet was disturbing the raven. So, Derrick decided that he wanted to move their enclosure to a quieter area around the tower. 

 

So, I made my way round to the eastern side to the temporary enclosure. Derrick had taught me how to get the ravens up in the morning. But to be honest with you, I was still a little bit nervous around them. I looked inside the enclosure. I could see Bran. He was a massive male raven. He didn't like humans very much. In fact, he would chase humans, visitors around the tower on the hunt for something shiny. I once caught him pinning a small boy to the floor [audience laughter] as a young boy was about to put his sandwich in his mouth. [audience laughter] That was quite difficult to pass that on to the parents. [audience laughter] 

 

Now, Bran's partner at the time, a raven called Munin, she was the oldest and the smartest of the raven, liked to sleep indoors at nighttime, and we had a little shelter that she would go in. I distinctly remember Derrick saying to me, “Chris, do not let out Bran and Munin.” We were doing some experimentation. We were doing a minimum wing trim policy. So, what we were actually trying to do is allow the raven to stay at the Tower of London, but to allow them more movement around the Tower of London and let them fly a little bit. So, Derrick said, “Don't let them out.” Got that. Absolutely. 

 

I made my way towards the enclosure, unlocked the padlock, went inside very, very cautiously. Bran, who was sitting on the perch, stuck his head up, looked at me and with the loudest croak that he could ever make, he sounded off. I swear to this day, folks, I swear to this day, it was a signal for an ambush. [audience laughter] Because just as he done that, Munin flew out of her little box, struck me on the chest, slid down my body, squeezed through my legs and out of the enclosure. [audience laughter] I turned round. I shut the door behind me quickly just to see Munin starting to get higher and higher and higher. 

 

Derrick had not taught me what to do if a raven was to escape. I stood there with my mouth open like a little bird waiting to be fed. It was terrible. I started to go into a form of paralyzed panic as I realized that she had started to get higher and higher. She was looping her way around the White Tower, the large tower in the center, and then she disappeared off into the distance. I spent the remainder of the morning running around getting the other ravens out, but all the time looking around to see if I could see her on the rooftops and the trees in every corner that I thought she was hiding. But it was to no avail, she had gone. She had flown the roost. 

 

I carried on my yeoman warder duties for the day. I didn't actually tell anybody that she'd gone missing. [audience laughter] I was so embarrassed about it. So, I walked around the tower looking rather dejected, looking forlornly up at the towers, wondering whether she would come back. I was worried about her. Was she okay? Was she missing Bran? Who knows? 

 

It was coming towards the end of the day. We were just starting to usher out the visitors closing the tower for the evening. It was about the time when I was going to put the other birds to bed. So, I thought I'd have a walk around the tower and see if I could take one last look to see where she was. I looked up at the White Tower, and I could see, just on top of the gold crown, a small black dot. I strained. Was that a crow? Was that a raven? And then, I heard her croaking, her sound that she normally made when she wanted to be fed. She had come back, but she was on top of the White Tower. And I needed to get her down. 

 

I waited till everybody had left the tower. I found a staircase that the workmen had been using to carry on their works up the tower, a series of levels that was going right up on the outside of the western side of the tower. I started to climb up them. First level, second, third, fourth, eighth, ninth. Tenth level, I paused for a moment. I was absolutely knackered. I opened this little crack in the canvas and looked outside. It was very, very high. I was looking over London. It was a fantastic view. The sun was setting in the distance. But I wasn't up there for sightseeing. I had to go and save the kingdom. 

 

I could just about make out Munin. She was sitting on the Golden Crown. She was grooming herself, getting herself ready for a night's slumber. So, I decided, as I was getting closer to her, that I would go into stealth mode. So, I started to creep along just as quietly as I possibly could. By this time, I was sweating, my uniform was covered in dust, snagging it on the poles. Now, I was about 10-foot away from her. Above me was a royal weather vane, a crown, Munin and the sky. Below me, 150 feet, was the cold, hard earth. This was it. I climbed up as far as I possibly could. 

 

My plan was to grab hold of the weather vane and perhaps have enough strength to lift myself up, grab her feet and bring her down to my chest. [audience laughter] I got myself ready. I got myself in position. I grabbed the weather vane and I made a catastrophic mistake. I had forgot to take into account that a weather vane moves [audience laughter] with the whims of the wind. [audience laughter] It spun me around in a northeasterly direction. [audience laughter] 

 

I remember watching the sky turning around like water going down a whirlpool, and Munin flying off into the distance of the setting sun. I felt very stupid. [audience laughter] I slid back down onto that platform. I sat there for one moment contemplating life, thinking to myself, what a stupid move to do. I had let down myself. I had let down the tower. I had let down her Majesty the Queen. But more importantly than that, I had let down Derrick, and he was going to be absolutely furious with me. So, the climb down the White Tower that day was a long climb down. 

 

The following day, I had to explain to Derrick that I'd lost one of his prized ravens. She was 19 years old with the Tower all that time. He cared for her and looked after her. He never spoke to me very much. He just gave me that look. For seven days, I avoided him like the plague. Until one day, one day, we got a phone call from a man, a gentleman named Greenwich, who said that he'd seen a raven in his back garden. He believed that this raven belonged to her Majesty, the Queen. He caught it. He'd put some chicken in his back garden, and he'd got a blanket and he'd thrown it over this raven. [audience laughter] He'd gathered up this raven and put it in a bag. When I raced to his house and got there, this little raven's head was just poking out the bag. [audience laughter] A member of the public had saved the kingdom. 

 

We brought Munin back under close arrest. She spent many, many happy years at the Tower of London. I learnt a really interesting lesson. I learnt never to trust a raven, [audience laughter] because believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, they are much more smarter than us. Nowadays, I am the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London, and I look after our magnificent ravens. We have six there by royal decree. As the country at the moment is a little bit dodgy, [audience laughter] I've got two extra just in case. [audience laughter] But I do allow the raven to have some movement around the Tower. 

 

As a result of what took place then, and me knowing that she had actually came back to the Tower, I now allow the ravens to all the ravens at the Tower of London to be in full flight. So, if you ever come to the Tower of London and you do see the ravens, don't just look on the ground anymore, look up into the treetops and on the spires, and that is where you will find our ravens. Thank you very much indeed.