Alexander Sutherland

The Littleton Whale

In January 1885 a whale was stranded near the brick works at Littleton.  This wharf is still known as Whale Wharf.  The excitement it caused is quite astonishing.

Thousands of people came to see the spectacle with the Midland Railway putting on special excursion trains.  The Dursley Gazette of 31st January 1885 recorded “So large was the number of visitors to Littleton on Sunday that the vehicles in which they came were about three miles in length”.  The number of visitors apparently caused a great deal of damage to local roads.  The Gazette also revealed “Those who stood to leeward, and into whose faces the spicy breeze from the monster blew, held their noses and manifested in a very demonstrative manner that their olfactory organs were in no way delightfully tickled”.  Alexander Sutherland's photograph shown here makes the whale seem very swollen but that is sadly due to its already decaying condition.

An article in the bulletin issued by "The Society of Thornbury Folk" (August 1963) explains that it was a female Rorqual or Smooth- backed whale which was 68 feet long.  It appears to have been sighted by Mrs Durnell, wife of the foreman of the brick works.

The whale was claimed by the Crown and customs officers arrived from Sharpness.  It was towed down the estuary and up the Avon by a tug called the "Frank Stanley".  It ended up in St Phillip’s Marsh in Bristol where it was exhibited to thousands more people for a further fortnight before being made into fertiliser.  Presumably Bristolian olfactory organs must have been severely challenged by that time!  Some of its bones were deposited in the British museum.

This photograph is the most well known of those taken to commemorate the event and is interesting because it shows a line of people on the river bank, which gives an idea of the immensity of the creature.

This page was last updated: 20/05/2008