How a phone call 40 years ago changed Ice Age history

A discovery which transformed scientists' understanding of the Ice Age in western Europe is being remembered 40 years on.

The remains of five mammoths were uncovered by quarry workers at a gravel pit near Condover, Shropshire, in on 27 September 1986.

Initially thought to possibly belong to a shire horse or even a circus elephant, the bones turned out to include the most complete adult mammoth skeleton found in Britain.

Radiocarbon dating placed the animals at about 14,000 years old, proving mammoths had survived in Britain thousands of years later than previously thought.

But four decades later, those involved have also been setting the record straight about how the remarkable discovery came to the attention of experts.

Eve Roberts, now 88, was walking her dogs with her husband, Glyn, near the quarry when workers drew their attention to one of the unusually large bones they had uncovered.

Roberts decided the find should be reported and contacted Shropshire Museum Service.

Her actions proved pivotal.

"We were out walking our dogs, as we always did, round the fields down by the quarry and the workmen were there at the side, like they usually were.

"And then the one [workman] shouted, 'oh what's this?' and he showed us this bone.

"Now, this bone - my husband was about 6ft 1in or 2in and it would come up to his waist.

"[The workman] said it was a chap on the dragline that had unearthed them the day before, on the Friday.

"These were on a spoil heap on the Saturday morning and we both felt this wasn't normal due to the size of them.

"So we came home and we rang the museum people, it was the Ludlow curator we spoke to at first.

"Then we spoke to someone else who said they'd go and have a look. When they went out and had a look they realised that it was something."

Roberts said she subsequently took time off work to help with the digs and treat the bones.

"I found it very interesting," she said, adding: "Up until then I hadn't got a clue about anything to do with that sort of thing."

Prof Adrian Lister, who was 31 when he was called in to work on the find, later described Roberts' role as crucial.

When he published a book about mammoths, he signed her copy with the words: "To Eve, who started it all."

He said her phone call was "absolutely critical", adding: "Without that, I don't think the find would have ever come to scientific notice.

"With respect to the workmen, they had a job to do, they're paid to dig up the gravel and although they dug up these bones, as the chap said, they thought they were just from a horse.

"So they would have just been left or crushed, or who knows what.

"So that phone call from Eve to Ludlow Museum was absolutely pivotal because that's what led to the proper excavation of the bones."

The discovery sparked huge interest in Shropshire, with scores of volunteers helping excavate and clean hundreds of bones recovered from the site.

Lister described the remains as being in "fabulous condition", with the adult eventually identified as a male aged around 30 to 32.

Four juvenile mammoths were also found, although subsequent research established they were not a family and had died at different times.

Experts believe the animals were attracted by nutritious vegetation growing around a muddy "kettle hole", created as ice retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, before becoming trapped.

The find attracted national attention, including from the BBC children's programme Blue Peter.

Presenter Mark Curry travelled to Shropshire and was filmed carrying the mammoth's pelvis shortly after it had been removed from the clay.

"It's just completely surreal and I don't know which particular mammoth that was - there were five found," he recalled.

Curry added: "It's quite a sad story really that all these mammoths were killed, but I think it was about 80% of the adult's skeleton [that] was found.

"That's why it's so incredible."

Before the Condover discovery, scientists believed mammoths had disappeared from Britain about 18,000 to 19,000 years ago.

Dating the Shropshire remains to about 14,000 years ago prompted further research and helped establish that mammoths had survived in Britain and western Europe thousands of years longer than previously believed.

The adult skeleton remains the most complete mammoth found in Britain.

Most of the original bones are now held at Ludlow Library and Museum Collection Centre, while some are displayed at Shrewsbury Museum.

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