Ice
Age Ilford is a
temporary exhibition currently running at Redbridge Museum in east
London, featuring loans from the British Geological Survey (BGS). Redbridge Museum
Manager, Gerard Greene, talks about the partnership between the Museum and the
BGS:
Over
200,000 years ago, Ilford was home to mammoths, elephants, rhinoceros, giant
deer, wild cattle and even lions. Hundreds of their fossilised bones were
unearthed in Ilford 150 years ago, making it one of the most important
Pleistocene sites in the UK. Many of the fossils are now in the collections of
the BGS and in this special exhibition, the BGS worked with Redbridge Museum to
enable some of these fossils to return home for a brief visit.
I found
the staff at the BGS were incredibly helpful. We visited the stores and were
overwhelmed at the richness of the collections but also at how much the BGS
were enthused by our project. They understood immediately what we wanted to do
and made the loans process very simple for us, particularly as we are a small
museum. After discussions, the BGS team made a selection of loans and then
visited the Museum. They had taken life-sized images of the bones which made
the display preparation so much easier for us and was great to have. Even more
amazing was a 3D scan of a mammoth tooth which they printed out for us – this
was quite unexpected and very high-tech!
The
fossils formed the centrepiece of the exhibition which was designed by
Redbridge Museum. The displays explain what the Ice Age was, what creatures
lived in Ilford during that time, why the area has preserved so many fossils
and showed how workmen digging in brickfields during the mid-nineteenth century
started to uncover them. In this way, the displays not only show life 200,000
years ago but what Ilford was like before being swallowed up as a suburb of
London.
We also
worked with a local community group, the East Ilford Betterment Partnership, and the Natural History Museum,
London, to display a cast of the skull of the ‘Ilford mammoth’, one of the most
complete examples ever found in the UK.
The
response to the exhibition has been really positive. Visitors are delighted and
surprised to find out how important Ilford is in the scientific world and I
think this helps to boost civic pride, one of the key local political agendas.
So far, the exhibition has had over 3000 visits with February half-term’s
family mammoth trail resulting in the most visitors the Museum has ever had for
that time of the year. It has also been a hit with local schools and the Museum
has taught the topic to over 1000 pupils so far in newly designed education
sessions which will become a core part of our programme after the exhibition
finishes. Over the next few years we hope to comprehensively redevelop the main
Museum and the topic of ‘Ice Age Ilford’ will be a key part of this and we look
forward to continuing our partnership with the BGS.
Ice
Age Ilford runs
until 4 June 2016
Redbridge
Museum, Central Library, Clements Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 1EA
