Butch the pig carves out a small place in eternity

IT IS A fine line - about to become pork chops one month, and hailed a national hero and immortalised in a statue at a historic cathedral the next, writes Kim Sengupta.

That is the latest achievement of one of the Tamworth Two - famous after successfully fleeing for life and liberty from a slaughterhouse.

Butch the pig has been carved on to a pinnacle to grace the 13th-century Lady Chapel at Hereford Cathedral as part of a pounds 1m restoration plan. The cathedral is also home to Mappa Mundi, one of the earliest maps of the world, and last night the director of the cathedral's Perpetual Trust, Sue Embrey, said: "We now have a 20th-century legend alongside the more ancient legends depicted in the cathedral, it is fabulous carving of his face".

Butch and Sundance made a run for it as they were being transferred from a van into an an abattoir yard in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. They even plunged into the icy waters of the River Avon in their determination to escape. For days afterwards they were celebrated fugitives hunted by a posse of police, animal welfare officials and the media.

The duo were bought up by newspapers and will spend the rest of their lives in comfort at a sty with all mod cons in an animal sanctuary until they die of natural causes.

It is a happy ending, but not for everyone. There was in fact originally the Tamworth Three, including the one they left behind. He was " processed the usual way" and turned into sausages and bacon.