Sandbach’s Heritage – October 2026

By Stewart Green

Sandbach was visited by an Elephant. Not the usual type but a mechanical one which children could sit on and were taken for a ride round the car park. After the Second World War there were a lot of Mechanical Elephants in seaside resorts using them to give rides without the danger of a temperamental live elephant.

On the 28 July 1950 Frank Stuart premiered his man made walking elephant on the roads of Essex with children on its back in what is known as a Howdah. Frank came up with the idea in 1948 while watching donkeys on the beach and wondered if he could do the same with a mechanical elephant. Powered by a 10 horsepower motor the elephant could do 27 mph and had to have a special licence to go on the roads. Frank made about 25 elephants by 1957 but it left him in debt as they didn’t bring in enough money to run them.

In 1965 Frank Stuart put his creations up for sale to an amusement park and it is possible that it was one of these elephants that came to Sandbach on a very memorable day. In 1967 one of Frank’s “Electrophants” (as they were called) named Jessica appeared on Blue Peter with Valerie Singleton and Christopher Trace. It was made by a new company called “Electrophants Limited” who produced them in Stratford St Mary, Suffolk.

In December 1975 and April 1976 one of the original versions called “Bertha” also appeared on Blue Peter this time with John Noakes, Peter Purves and Lesley Judd and they even interviewed the creator of the elephant, Frank Stuart.

The mechanical elephant was not the only creature to park on Scotch Common in the 1970’s – a large Blue Whale (or Finback Whale) was put on display for the public. It was one of three real whale carcasses that toured the country and were called Jonah, Goliath and Hercules. Two of the display whales have since disappeared but the third one Jonah was by 2013 being restored for exhibition.

Jonah was a 70ft, 70 ton Finback Whale which had been caught off Trondheim in Norway in 1952. It was originally exhibited at Oslo University. It then had its organs removed and was fitted with a refrigeration unit and was put onto the back of a 100ft trailer which was at the time the biggest lorry in the world. It then toured Norway to promote Whaling along with a stuffed dormouse in a glass case which was put in its mouth (or on its nose) to show the largest and smallest mammals in the world.

It then toured for 25 years to just about every town in Europe, Japan and Africa. Eventually it was sold to a Circus Owner and then a Swiss businessman who exhibited it as an educational exhibit touring places like Sheffield in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s.

Hercules the second Whale on tour was disposed of when the Circus owner went bust in Spain.

The third example Goliath after its touring days just disappeared.

It may have been destroyed in Barnsley or Soot Hill, Dewsbury when they may have burnt the carcass to stop it going off and they say that the kiln that the whale was burnt in is supposed to have exploded due to the gases in the whale.