The Story of
the Derby Hippopotamus
In 1895, a skeleton of a hippopotamus was dug up in Allenton in Derby. How it got there is a fascinating and wonderful story. Local geologist H.H. Arnold Bemrose and the Crown Inn at Allenton, Derby both play a part in this story.
In March 1895 a well was being dug in the yard of the Crown Inn at Allenton – then a country hamlet three miles to the south of Derby. Very soon a strong unpleasant smell was noticed and several large bones were discovered. The water then rose very rapidly after 21 bones or fragments of bone were taken out. The well was abandoned, but two local geologists, H. H. Arnold Bemrose and R. M. Deeley, organised an excavation nearly ten feet deep, to gather more bones. This second excavation also filled with water, but this time a further 127 bones and bone fragments were recovered. They later identified the bones as mainly belonging to a hippopotamus, together with the breastbone of an elephant and the femur of a rhinoceros.
The remains have since been dated to 120 thousand years ago - a time long before Derby existed.
The enormous lower jaw of the Allenton hippopotamus has a large part of its right hand side missing, but the two fearsome canine teeth are in place. These were used for grubbing in the mud for plant roots, for fighting and defence.
When Hippos Swam in the Derwent
It is thought that the place where the hippo remains were found marked the site of a silted-up side channel of the river Derwent. The single fast-flowing river of today is the result of human engineering. 120 thousand years ago, the Derwent would have been very different. Then it consisted of very many separate channels running into each other and winding lazily across the swampy floor of its wide valley. We believe that people rarely put in an appearance in Britain at this time, so the hippo and the other animals would, for much of the time, have this lush environment all to themselves.
Currently to be found in the Derbyshire Nature Gallery at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
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