Peckforton's Grade II-listed Elephant and Castle monument is level again on a new plinth, paid for by resident Alison Barlow. A plaque is unveiled on Sunday.

Peckforton’s sandstone elephant is standing straight again. The Grade II-listed Elephant and Castle monument in the village near Tarporley had developed a lean serious enough to put its future in doubt. It has now been moved onto a new, level plinth and secured, in a rescue that one villager, Alison Barlow, drove and paid for herself.

On Sunday 4 October at 2.30pm she will unveil a plaque marking the rescue.

“I thought this might catch your eye: an eight-ton elephant in a small Cheshire village,” Mark Salmon wrote when he sent us the news on her behalf. “Thankfully, it’s made of sandstone!”

How big the elephant is

According to the press release, the monument is more than 150 years old, stands around 14 feet high and weighs approximately eight tons. It had become increasingly unstable.

The sandstone elephant before the rescue, carrying a carved stone castle on its back and standing on a worn sandstone base, between a red-brick house and a holly hedge
Before: the elephant and its castle on the old base, when the lean raised concerns for the monument's future. Photo: Alison Barlow

Alison Barlow, the release says, “decided she was not prepared to see this unusual piece of Peckforton’s heritage lost.”

What the rescue involved

This was not a quick job. The release lists structural advice, planning permission, specialist stonemasonry and the building of a new level plinth. Then came “the considerable challenge of safely repositioning an eight-ton sandstone elephant.”

The photograph at the top of this page shows the result: the elephant standing on a new block of dressed red sandstone, with fresh earth still around its base.

By Friday 2 October the castle was back on the elephant’s back. Mark Salmon’s photographs from that morning show the full monument on the new plinth, with work still going on around it.

The sandstone elephant with its carved castle on its back, standing on a new dressed red sandstone plinth, with blue sheeting around its feet and bare earth around the base
The elephant and castle together again on the new plinth, 2 October. Photo: Mark Salmon
The elephant and castle on the new plinth, with blue sheeting and a dark cloth over the front of the base, behind a wire fence, and a man with a spade beside it
Work continuing at the base of the monument, 2 October. Photo: Mark Salmon
The elephant and castle seen from the front, on the new plinth behind a wire fence, with dug earth and a spade in the foreground
The monument from the front, with the ground around the plinth still dug over, 2 October. Photo: Mark Salmon

Nobody is saying what it cost. The release describes Ms Barlow as “characteristically reluctant to discuss the considerable personal expense,” and says her approach throughout “has effectively been that the monument should be saved ‘at any cost’.”

Key facts about Peckforton's Elephant and Castle monument: approximately 8 tons of sandstone, around 14 feet high, more than 150 years old and Grade II listed, with a plaque unveiled on Sunday 4 October at 2.30pm.
The monument in numbers. Graphic by Chester Online, from the press release
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Sunday’s unveiling

The plaque goes up at 2.30pm on Sunday. A small private afternoon tea for ticket holders follows, so this is not an open public event, and it is now fully ticketed with no places left.

Corrected 2 October: an earlier version said to contact Mark Salmon for access details. He is not handling tickets or bookings, and the event is full.

What it means for you

  • If you live nearby: the village’s listed elephant is stable and level again, which the release headline calls “saved for future generations”.
  • If you want to see it: the unveiling and tea are for ticket holders only, and every ticket has gone. If you want to visit at another time, note that the photographs show it in a garden setting among houses.
  • If you have photographs or memories of the elephant, from before or during the work, we would like to see them: hello@chesteronline.co.uk.

For more on what is happening around Tarporley, see our local businesses in Tarporley listings.