The Sheffield Jungle

[SteveHB]

Miss Aurora's equestrian lion D'Artagnan and her mongrel French poodle.

[boginspro]

On 04/09/2011 at 17:01, DaveH said:

As "Bostock and Wombwell" they were a very well known touring menagerie in their day.

They had a pair of elephants called Nero and Rajah in their menagerie which did a lot of the hauling.

In later days (early 20th century) they had a pair of very nice pair of Burrell showmans steam traction engines to do the same job. I believe the engines even carried the elephants names on their nameplates. Only one of the engines survives into present day preservation though.

I note this is an old post and for me the links don't work but I have found posts and articles about this menagerie very interesting in the past. The menagerie certainly got around a bit, there is a place which we knew as The Elephants Graveyard when we lived in Aberdeenshire where an elephant was buried in August 1917. I have just realised that this was one of Bostock and Wombwell's elephants called Mona,  though apparently Frank Bostock had died in 1912.  They must have been a fantastic attraction when in Sheffield from 1910 to 1913.

EDIT -- I am assuming the links don't work for anyone and not just me, these may be two of them        ----------     https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/nfca/projects/sheffieldjungle      -----------    https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/1806-1.174144      --

The quote above by DaveH   is from this post    ------    https://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/11644-accident-to-wombwell39s-menagerie1867/?tab=comments#comment-93273