E&S appeal traces statue

A piece of Wolverhampton's heritage was thought lost forever when the Elephant and Castle pub was demolished almost seven years ago.

Regulars demanded to know what had happened to the iconic elephant statue which greeted them as they went in when their old boozer was demolished almost overnight.

But as plans are being considered for a new statue at the nearby Peel Retail Park, a Bushbury man has revealed that he rescued the old one from the side of the road. Winston Aplin spotted a beam of oak flytipped next to the Jungle scrapyard in Bilston in 2001.

His find came soon after the pub had been demolished and the site cleared.

As the father of two and a friend started to retrieve the beam for use in his garden in Beechwood Avenue, Winston spotted something strange.

Winston, who responded to an appeal for information about the original in the Express & Star, said: "I had heard that stuff from the Elephant and Castle had just been flytipped, and I recognised the statue.

"Everyone round here would know it. My dad Norman used to go in there a lot when he was working on the door at the Oasis club.

"Some people think the bull at the Bullring is an icon but this is something that belongs round here."

The 41-year-old has since given the battered old statue a new home. Its legs are all but gone and the castle it bore on its back is a ruin, but the blue and red elephant is unmistakable.

Winston's partner Lisa Manderson, 36, mum to Chemmey-Belle, eight, and Jenson, 18 months, nicknamed the elephant Lucky.

She said: "Elephants are my favourite animals. We've got a few elephant statues, so it fits in well."

A storm of protest met the demolition of the pub, which stood on the corner of Cannock Road and Stafford Street. The green-tiled watering hole, which dated from the 1880s, had become isolated by roads all around it and the Peel Retail Park behind by the mid-1980s.

By Daniel Wainwright