* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Ilford mammoth

Blobrana · L

Mammoth day 10th November 2012

On the 148th anniversary of the excavation of Uphall Brick Pits (along Ilford lane), that led to the discovery of Britain's largest mammoth remains and only complete Mammoth skull - local people met outside Ilford Methodist Church to unveil a new plaque which commemorates this significant find.
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Blobrana · L

In the early 19th century, when Ilford was a village on the London Road, a number of brick pits were in operation in the vicinity and occasionally the workmen came across the bones of large Ice Age mammals in and below the 'brickearth'. The pits eventually came to the attention of local amateur geologists who, with the co-operation of the owners of the brickworks, obtained an enormous number of specimens of mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and other mammals which can now be seen in the Natural History Museum and the Museum of London.
Uphall Pit was the site of the discovery of the skull of the 'Ilford mammoth' in 1863 which had tusks nearly 3 metres long and is regarded as the most complete mammoth skull ever found in Britain. The catalogue of Brady's collection records in detail the excavation of the beast and describes how difficult the task was.
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Blobrana · L

1824
The entire skeleton of a large mammoth was recently discovered near London, at Ilford, in the county of Essex, near Stratford and Bow. It lay buried at a depth of about sixteen feet, in a large quarry of diluvial loam and clay which is excavated for making bricks. Mr John Gibson, of Stratford, diligently collected and preserved as much as possible of this skeleton; and he invited professor Buckland and Mr Clift to assist him in disinterring the remainder of the bones which he had purposely left in their natural position in the quarry. These gentlemen found a large tusk and several of the largest cylindrical bones of the legs, also many ribs and vertebra, with the smaller bones of the feet and tail lying close upon one another. They were embedded in tenacious clay, being part of the great superficial covering of diluvial clay, sand, and gravel, which is spread over a large portion of the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and along the whole east coast of England, at irregular intervals, and is almost every where occasionally discovered to contain similar remains of antediluvian animals to those at Ilford.
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