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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Renfrewshire => Topic started by: janwbay on Tuesday 04 February 14 16:26 GMT (UK)
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Hi there
Does anyone remember an elephant which stood near the entrance in Paisley Museum in the High Street?
I used to go there in my lunch hour from school and am sure that I can remember it. My sister says I am havering and am thinking of the Art Galleries.
Can anyone help? A photo would be great.
Thanks
Janice
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Sir Roger, the stuffed elephant at Kelvingrove, perhaps?
see here for picture:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0xxc/
and ;D at 'havering'....haven't heard that great Scottish term in a while
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http://www.redstone-tech.com/gerry_bsb/paisley/jun23.htm
Somebody else "havering"??
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Perhaps an email to the Museum, with appropriate question, might get answer - maybe 'Sir Roger' was packed over to Paisley on holidays for a few years at some stage ;D:
http://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/member/paisley-museum-and-art-galleries
or perhaps he had a rival.
According to their website, they did indeed have the lion that Rafferty recalled:
These include the much loved and famous ‘Buddy’ the lion
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Thanks for your replies Scotmum, and Hanes tuelu
It definitely was not the elephant that is still at Kelvingrove. That one is huge. The one in Paisley was much smaller.
I've just looked at the article you gave me a link to, and Gerry Rafferty mentions a lion, and also a stuffed elephant in the museum, so maybe I'm not havering after all.
I will try the museum, but maybe the word of Gerry Rafferty should be enough. See next paragraph.
"We used to go to the ABC Minors every Saturday morning at the Regal cinema - the films they put on for us were great then. "I also remember coming here to the Museum and touching the big stuffed elephant and the lion." The elephant's long gone but the lion still stands proud inside the Greek-styled building on the High Street.
Thanks again
Janice
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Hi Janice,
You are right. There did indeed used to be an elephant. He was removed some years ago as he was just too old to keep. I too often went to the museum as I went to school in Paisley - the JNI which was close by and he was very popular and we were allowed to touch him. My husband came from Paisley and he too remembers the elephant.
I was there recently with my grandchildren and the lion is still there but I can't remember what he was called. It has been there for years and does look slightly aged.
Sandra
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At least in Paisley you had a full lion.
Unless I'm havering I think the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock had half a lion in a glass display - the top half! Poor soul!
Maybe I should start another thread to see if my memory is correct! ;D
Looby
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Thanks Looby and Sandra.
That's great that you remember it Sandra. I can remember touching it and it had hairs sticking out here and there, like bristles.
Maybe my sister will believe me now.
I wonder why the Dick institute only had half of one. You couldn't really display the other half somewhere else. Probably it went wrong when they were preserving it. Ugh !
best wishes
Janice
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Glasgow Museums Resource centre talks of two mounted elephants in the overall Glasgow area collections, Sir Roger and Kelvin:
http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/collections-research/online-collections-navigator/Pages/home.aspx
And here is another article, from 2010, also recalling an elephant at Paisley Museum:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/life-style/real-lives/a-scottish-christmas-1.1075573
the dead stare of the ancient stuffed elephant greeting us at the entrance to Paisley Museum
and gosh, that article also brought back memories of the Elephant smell that would catch you between the nostrils as you arrived at Kelvin Hall for the Christmas circus - you wouldn't have wanted to bottle that scent as a perfume ;D!
ps Fraser1, see earlier post...apparently the lion is named 'Buddy'
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Thanks for this Scotmum.
Well I think I may be a wee bit strange, but I actually liked the smell of the elephants at the Kelvin Hall. It was (as I remember it) a sort of stable smell, not horrible, like dogs' or people's.
I may have forgotten the bad bits of course.
Janice
x
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Hi,
I don't particularly remember the elephant, but, there used to be some kind of store of stuffed animals at the Museum as my father as a teacher was allowed to borrow them for classes through the Council.
He definitely borrowed a full-sized kangaroo and I also remember a duck-billed platypus!
Carolineasb
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That's brilliant Caroline.
Thanks
Jan
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I remember that elephant from when i used to hang out at the museum as a kid in the early 70s. It was in a sorry state then as I remember. It had long hairs sticking out of it and always looked like it was about to fall apart!
Its funny i never knew about this website until this evening, i was reading about Gerry Rafferty and found a link to the exhibition at the museum and i thought back to when i used to visit so long ago and i remembered the Elephant and wondered if it was still there! a Google search on that let me to this site. I left Scotland in the late 70s and never returned to live there and several countries later i now live in the USA so this site looks like it could provide a lot of memory jolts for those times when i have that longing for Scotland that sometimes comes.
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Hi Dave,
Welcome to Rootschat :)
Yes there are certainly a good few topics being discussed that will jolt your memory banks.
And if you feel like tracing your roots back down the generations and researchimg your family tree/history this is an excellent site with friendly, helpful members from all corners of the globe :P
And as for Gerry Rafferty (he was a Paisley boy too wasn't he), I once saw him play the old Glasgow Apollo circa 1979/80. "Baker Street" was tremendous. But that should be a whole different thread!
Best wishes,
Looby :)
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Apparently and I've just been told that this elephant was called Nelly and believe it or not my Great Grand worked in the circus as the elephant Keeper, I cannot remember the Elephant outside of the museum but I guess it was stuffed.
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For what it's worth I don't recall seeing the Elephant when I visited the Museum in 1991. I guess my late wife Ede would have known it for she lived nearby with her then husband Dick Stewart during the latter half of the 1950's.
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Apologies Nancy the elephant not Nelly
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Funny enough I was doing a search regarding the elephant, don’t have much on the history of it but while it was alive my great grandfather was the trainer, unfortunately I’ve no history or pictures only what my father told me about how my great grandfather ran away from home to join the circus and ended being the trainer until the elephant died.
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Brilliant story. Thanks for sharing x
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I remember an indoor zoo in Oswald Street, Glasgow in the sixties, is this the elephant? There was one kept out at a Zoo in Milngavie, Craigend Castle? On a visit to the city via Maryhill Road, this elephant was given a bucket of beer outside a pub. This elephant thereafter wouldn't pass that particular pub unless similarly refreshed! ;D
Skoosh.
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I don't think so, as it was dead and stuffed in Paisley museum at least as early as 1963. 😁
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At least in Paisley you had a full lion.
Unless I'm havering I think the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock had half a lion in a glass display - the top half! Poor soul!
Maybe I should start another thread to see if my memory is correct! ;D
Looby
Hi Looby,
I'm coming somewhat late to this thread but I can confirm you're not havering! I grew up in Kilmarnock and clearly remember the lion. As you said it was just the front half of it, but as a wee boy I was slightly scared of it!
Cheers,
John