The Bishop's Castle elephant found on film

As a regular visitor to Bishop's Castle I have from time to time come across the story that there used to be an elephant stabled at the town's Castle Hotel.

I have never quite believed it, but thanks to Flicks in the Sticks' Bigger Picture Archive Project, you can see the creature in the clip above.

The Shropshire Star quotes Elizabeth-Anne Williams from the Project:

"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'.

The Bigger Picture Archive Project also turned up the footage of Amy Johnson at the gliding station on the Long Mynd that I posted recently.