Famous hippo comes to life for festival

The legendary hippo, whose bones are believed to be about 130,000 years old, is being brought back to life by this year's I Love West Leeds Festival.

Organisers of the festival, which runs from July 3 to 25, decided to turn their hand to hippos in celebration of 'hippopotamus amphibious', the animal whose bones were discovered over 150 years ago at the site where the Armley Gyratory road system is today in the heart of Leeds.

In 1851, workmen digging clay in Longley's brick field in Wortley, Leeds, discovered several huge bones, which were identified as the bones of the Great Northern Hippopotamus.

The bones of the Armley Hippo are now kept at the Leeds Museum Discovery Centre but the hippo will not go uncelebrated.

Children at Armley Primary School in Leeds were shown some of the original Armley Hippo bones yesterday.

Festival organiser Jane Earnshaw and her team of volunteers have been making hundreds of plaster hippos and inviting local people to have a go at decorating them.

Picture: Simon Hulme.