Mammoth task to restore a tusk (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Mammoth task to restore a tusk

10:49am Tuesday 1st March 2011 in Memories By Richard Garfield

IT was truly a mammoth task to get one of The Willis Museum’s impressive exhibits restored and placed on the top floor.

An eight-foot long tusk that once belonged to a woolly mammoth that roamed around north Hampshire 20,000 years ago is now back on display in the museum’s revamped archaeological gallery.

It was back in April 1973 that the tusk was unearthed by workmen digging a drain at Lodge Farm, in North Warnborough, beside the River Whitewater.

Sharp-eyed excavator driver Dave Bennett, was scooping out mud and soil from the 10- feet deep pit when he spotted the tip of the tusk.

After the discovery, Dave told The Gazette: “We could see it was something unusual, so we stopped and jumped into the pit with our shovels and cleaned the mud off it to see what it was.

“It was black with brown patches and it was very wet and heavy. It took three of us to lift it from the pit.”

Once the tusk had been lifted from the pit, it was covered with damp sacking to help preserve it.

Dr Anthony Sutcliffe, from the Natural History Museum in Kensington, was promptly sent for. As tusks disintegrate quickly if exposed to the air, Dr Sutcliffe took the tusk back to the museum for technicians to carry out immediate preservation work.

Dr Sutcliffe noted that the socket end of the tusk was rounded and fairly smooth, instead of being jagged.

He explained: “This rounding is probably due to it being washed around in the water before it became buried in the bed of the stream.

“The animal could have died in the valley and if we were to trace the bed of the stream and excavate long enough, we would probably come up with some more traces of this animal, or perhaps a woolly rhinoceros or reindeer.

“This tusk is in good condition, which is fairly unusual. Mammoth tusks have been found in other parts of the country, but are often broken or falling to pieces.”

Richard Janaway, who farmed the land at North Warnborough, asked for the tusk to be offered to The Willis Museum.

He told The Gazette: “It would be nicer to have it here in Basingstoke, where local people can see it, rather than have it stuck up in London.”

And indeed that is where the tusk went and stayed until The Willis closed for refurbishment in September 2008.

Curator Sue Tapliss said: “It was noticed that some unsightly repairs had been done in the past and so the opportunity was grasped to have it restored.”

The exhibit was previously part of the archaeology gallery on show on the museum’s middle floor, but this has been moved upstairs, where there is more space.

The Willis Museum, in Market Place, is free to visit. It is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and on Saturday from 10am to 4pm.