The Three Graces

These photos (this one and the extras) are all connected, and it's an interesting and almost forgotten piece of local history. I had never heard of the elephants of Leamington. But in the 1880s a local showman, Sam Lockhart, had an elephant circus and the pachyderms (the 3 most famous of these were called The Three Graces) were a common sight walking down through the town centre from the elephant house (the red door) to the Elephant Wash on the river (their own runway down to the Leam). The elephants are commemorated in statues dotted around the town, though oddly enough there are no signs near the ones I've found to explain what they are all about.