The March of the Elephants: A Bishop’s Castle art trail

The March of the Elephants is a project to create a trail of varied elephant-inspired artworks around the town of Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire.

Why elephants in Bishop's Castle? Visit Shropshire explains one reason:

During the 18thcentury it was home to Robert Clive, better known as Clive of India, infamous for his exploits and an Indian elephant became his emblem. 

In 1781 Robert Clive’s eldest son Edward built a Market Hall for Bishop’s Castle. 

The Hall was a two-storey building with a ‘Venetian’ or three-part window on the front elevation, above which stood the carved Clive family coat of arms. 

When the Hall was knocked down, the arms were preserved and mounted in an arched stone surround and can now be seen as the monument at the top of the Square.

The website hurriedly adds that:

It should be noted that the project is purely celebrating the Town’s heritage in respect of elephants and not the life of Clive of India or imperialism in any way.

It's on safer ground when it refers to the tradition that at an elephant lived in the town during the second world war.

I had always been a bit of an elephant sceptic, but in a post that's now10 years old, I included the video above. I also quoted a Shropshire Star article about Flicks in the Sticks' Bigger Picture Archive Project, which found it.

Elizabeth-Anne Williams from the Project said:

"An interview recorded with George Evans in 2011 and archived at Bishops Castle Heritage Resource Centre reveals that when the Second World War broke out, a travelling circus had been performing in Bishops Castle with three or four elephants in their troupe. 

"The elephants required a lot of hay for feeding and when they packed up they weren’t able to take one elephant." 

George said the elephant was kept in the Castle Hotel stables, in the present car park, and he also remembered the elephant being taken for a walk past the Boys' School in Station Street where he and others gave it a swede which it 'squashed with its foot to eat it'.

And below you can see a photograph of the little square at the top of the town where the Market Hall stood. Thanks again to Duncan Smart for allowing me to use it – the post in which it first appeared was chiefly concerned with the changing of the feline guard there.