Cash secures mammoth display

The bones were discovered 16 years ago

The bones of four mammoths found in a Shropshire quarry are going on display at a museum.

English Nature has secured £47,000 for an air-conditioned case to display the 12,700-year-old bones more than a decade after they were discovered.

Staff at the National Museum of Wales, in Cardiff, have looked after the bones in an environmentally-controlled atmosphere since they were discovered in 1986.

The money will allow the mammoth skeletons to be brought home and displayed in a new £4.2m library and museum centre due to open next year in Ludlow.

Significant find

A Shropshire woman discovered the bones 16 years ago near a sand and gravel pit at Condover near Shrewsbury.

The discovery of three baby mammoths and one adult was considered one of the most significant mammoth finds ever in western Europe.

The adult mammoth was 3.2-metres tall (12.5 feet) and analysis of the bones showed that it had suffered a heavy fall just before its death as the animal's left shoulder bone was broken.

Joan Nash, chairman of the Friends of Ludlow Museum, said the cash would help to show off Shropshire's "fascinating" history.

"People come from all over the country and even the world because Shropshire has got such a wonderful variety of geology," she said.