Historians hope to find remains of animal from one of Britain’s Victorian travelling menageries
They are more used to excavating prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon sites, but archaeologists are now embarking on an extraordinary hunt for the fabled burial site of a 19th-century elephant – in south Gloucestershire.
This was a famous “beast” that drew crowds as part of a travelling menagerie that toured the length and breadth of Britain. It is thought to be the mighty mammal identified as Nancy in contemporary reports, which praised her “considerable intelligence” and ability to achieve “many astonishing feats”. According to local legend, she died in 1891 after escaping and chewing on poisonous yew leaves, and she was buried somewhere in the town of Kingswood.
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