A five minute drive from Pebbleditch is the market town of Tinkle. Tinkle has a museum, part of the Natural History Museum, filled to bursting with stuffed animals. Not cute little teddies and cuddly piglets but life size lions and apes and much, much more, all stuffed by a taxidermist (or two). Mavis was not too keen on this museum when we first visited it. It may have been the polar bear in the first display case by the entrance, that put her off, or the brown bears and lions snarling from behind it. Whatever it was it must have looked pretty terrifying to a four year old. Eventually she was persuaded that a dressed flea was worth running the gauntlet of the bears, birds, and wildcats and we made it past the front entrance.Soon it was a regular event on a wet afternoon and we would meet friends there and do the treasure hunt and enjoy a cup of tea in the café.
One day on one of these trips, Mavis’s little friend announced that these were real, proper, actual animals. (more…)
