A mechanical elephant built at a Lancaster mill around 75 years ago has finally made his way home.
Rajah is the last of a series of mechanical elephants built at Luneside Engineering, which was based at Halton Mill in Halton until the early 2000s.
He will make his first public appearance since coming home for Millfest on September 12, Halton’s annual music festival.
The elephants were designed by Morecambe entrepreneur, Frank Smith, who was inspired by a visit to a Manchester zoo, where he saw children riding a real elephant.
Frank started the next day in the garage and made an elephant out of iron bedsteads, balloon fabric, mechanical parts from an Austin 7 and a windscreen wiper motor for the moveable eyeballs, getting his dentist to make the toes, said his son Eric.
Luneside Engineering, set up by Polish servicemen after the Second World War, was commissioned to produce more elephants as rides for children.
Luneside elephants were sent to seaside resorts throughout the UK, returning to Halton for servicing every winter.
Rajah ended up in Merseyside, owned by the Crosby Lions Club, who used him to raise money for charity.
The directors of Halton Mill, a low carbon work and event space, were fascinated by the history of Luneside Engineering and its elephants.
“We even called the cooperative which runs Halton Mill ‘Green Elephant’ in homage to the elephants and to reflect our low carbon ambitions,” said Chris Coates.
In 2013, Chris set out to find if any of the Luneside elephants survived and eventually tracked Rajah down to Crosby.
He invited Rajah, and his handler Ivan Swainbank, to come as guests of honour when Halton Mill opened that September.
“Rajah created a bit of sensation and even got featured on TV,” said Chris.
“We offered local children the chance to ride on his back, people just loved him."
Then a few weeks ago, Halton Mill was contacted by the Crosby Lions.
They said that Rajah had been shut away unused in a garage since the Covid pandemic.
The Lions' parent organisation would no longer insure clubs to use “mechanically propelled petrol vehicles” and Rajah – who has a petrol engine – came into that category.
“They asked us if we wanted to offer Rajah a permanent home, and we jumped at the chance,” said Chris.
“He’s part of the history of our building and of the area. It would be terrible if he just rotted away in a garage.
“We went to collect him earlier this month and we travelled down the motorway with an elephant on a trailer – we must have been a bizarre sight.”
You can see Rajah at Millfest on September 12 at Halton Mill.
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