Elephants Part 2.
This follows on from my Blog No. 15.
This is a picture of an African Elephants' ear. It is similar in shape to
the continent of Africa. Looking at this map of the world, can you find Africa
by its shape?
This is a picture of an Indian or Asian Elephants's ear. India is a country
and is part of the continent of Asia. On the map, India is much smaller than
Africa but can you find it.
Alexander Fairgrieve's famous travelling menagerie - 'Wombwell's Royal Number One' - was to close in 1872. All of the animals were to be sold by auction in Edinburgh.
The Asian elephant called Maharajah was purchased from the Edinburgh auction by the owners of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens. It was planned to send him by train to Manchester, but this plan was rapidly altered after he severely damaged a railway carriage. His keeper suggested that they should walk to Manchester
Because he wrecked the railroad wagon he
was supposed to ride in Maharajah and his keeper had to walk the 260 miles to
Belle Vue and this they did over the next ten days. . A man has written a book all about his journey which is called
"The Elephant Who Walked to Manchester".
Maharajah on his walk from Edinbrugh to Manchester
Maharajah giving his rides at Belle Vue.
Four generations of my family have had rides on Elephants at a Belle Vue in Manchester England. The first was my Grandad Cottam who lived very close to Belle Vue and rode on the back of "Maharajah." There were only 3 African Elephants in the whole of Britain at the time, so he was a very lucky boy.
When my mother was a little girl she used to go to Belle Vue to have a ride on an Indian female Elephant
called "Lil" That is a picture of Lil above. Can you see her long
tusks.
When I was the same age it was my turn to go to Belle Vue with
my brothers and sisters to ride on the Elephant shown in this picture. This was
also an Indian elephant but I am afraid I don't know what her name was. I loved
the elephants at the zoo.
When our son Bryn was old enough, Sandra and I took him to Belle Vue to have a ride
on an elephant. However, they had stopped doing rides on live elephants so he
rode on this one which had wheels and an engine. Belle Vue finally closed its
doors in 1977.
In 1994 Sandra Bryn & I went to Kenya, in Africa on a Safari holiday.
We saw lots of wild animals including Lions, Zebra, Leopards, Buffalo, and even
a white Giraffe which is a very rare thing but the best thing was to see
elephants running wild with their young.
G Giles Elephant Hoax Cartoon 23rd August 1961
In 1961 two young British Rail Clerks working in the Goods yards at Ancoats in Manchester used to play a game to while away the time. The game consisted of sending each other false information about goods being shipped by rail. The idea was to come up with the most outrageous items and see if they would get passed the next stage in the procedure. Most were spotted and thrown out but one that got through was two elephants
travelling from Chipperfield’s Circus in Kent to Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester. Suddenly there was a hue and cry on the whole of the rail network to find the missing elephants.
No one wanted to let the circus or the zoo know that they had lost the Elephants and the two lads knew it would cost them there jobs if it got out. Eventually when they could not find them British Rail contacted Chipperfields and they confirmed that it was a hoax.
The result was Giles did the Cartoon and my family often has a laugh because one of the lads is a member of the family.
A few months later the following happened.
Circus elephants boarding a train 28 Sep 1961 London Chipperfield’s Circus elephants being loaded onto a British Railways van at St Botolph Station [Colchester] 28 Sep 1961. The elephants appeared in 1963 in the film Cleopatra, staring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Railway workers were used to transporting animals, although they mainly dealt with livestock being taken to markets! By the 1960s the numbers of animals being transported by rail was in decline due to competition from the roads.
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