MOBILE zoos, dancing bears and circuses were frequent visitors to Padiham in the 1800s.

Elephants, camels and caravans paraded through the streets, watched by excited crowds.

This photo shows Palm the elephant, tethered by the banks of the Calder, close to the town centre, with keeper, Albert Parnell in 1895.

Soon after he was attacked by the animal, which led to his death. According to newspaper reports of the time “the keeper was taken to Burnley Hospital by ambulance stretcher in a state of comparative collapse, small stimulants of brandy had to be given to him on the way”.

The picture is one of a number collected by Padiham Archives Group, along with this image of camels parading past St Leonard’s Church and these clowns on horseback wending down the hill.

Among the circuses which visited Padiham, was Ginnett’s Monstre Circus in 1863 with Tom King, the prize fighter. Footit’s Great allied Circus appeared at Easter 1874, en route to Burnley, Nelson and Colne.

There was an afternoon and evening performance, and before the matinee, a grand procession, nearly a mile long, paraded through the town.

People could pay 3s for reserved seats and 2s for boxes. Second class seats were 1s, but you could stand for 6d.

Children were admitted at half price and often given the afternoon off school to attend. In the British School Log Book in 1864, the teacher noted with resignation that “many who do not often come to school came in the afternoon to go to the circus.”

Sanger’s, probably the best well known, visited often. In 1880, there were more than 100 horses in the parade, nine elephants, camels, zebras, and “Peruvian God horses”, which may have been llamas.

Menageries also pitched up in Padiham, such as Bostock and Wombwell’s Royal National Menagerie in the 1870s, with a “stupendous collection of wild beasts, birds and reptiles, which is contained in 14 caravans and comprises over 500 living specimens”.

Among these were the “hairy wild man and woman and a real sea serpent from the coast of America, possibly the only living specimen ever seen in England... 26ft long and three feet in circumference”.

It was also quite common at this period for men with performing bears to appear in the streets. The bear’s master wore a huge bolero hat which he used to collect the coppers that were thrown to him.

The animal and his master used to be housed in the basement of the Blue Ribbon Club, in St Giles Street.