Kingswood elephant: The 130 year-old mystery of Britain’s buried elephants

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Legend suggested that Nancy belonged to Bostock and Wombwell’s menagerie, pictured “The story was probably put together by people in the pub during Victorian times and it’s stuck,” says Alan Bryant, curator at Kingswood Museum, who first heard about the burial while a milkman in the area in the 1970s. The Bostock and Wombwell Menagerie was a travelling exhibition of exotic animals In the Lincolnshire village of Aswarby, an American circus elephant is said to have been buried opposite a pub. Research did show, however, that the elephant was a highlight of the Bostock and Wombwell’s Menagerie, described as “the oldest, largest and best travelling exhibition ever organised”. “We have eleven elephants on display which we challenge people to find around the museum - and that is the only place you’ll likely find an elephant in Kingswood.”