Shropshire's mammoth discovery

Available for over a year

40 years ago, a discovery near Condover turned out to be one of the most significant finds ever in archaeology in western Europe. In September 1986 workers at a sand and gravel quarry dug up some very large bones. Eve Roberts and her husband were walking their dogs nearby and saw these huge bones and she reported them to the county museum service.The find led to the uncovering of more than 400 bones of an adult mammoth and several young mammoths and proved the creatures existed in western Europe for several thousand years longer than scientists had thought. Most of the bones are kept at the Shropshire Museums Collections Centre in Ludlow. "It was such a headline grabber at the time", Museum curator Sarah Skelton tells BBC Radio Shropshire's Kate Tebby. Photo credit: Shropshire Museums