Museum & Art Swindon makes Steg-gering acquisition

The team at the Council-run museum, at the Civic Offices in Euclid Street, have acquired a dinosaur bone which experts believe to be from the Swindon Stegosaur, the first example of the herbivorous Dacentrurus dinosaur that was first discovered in 1874.

The original fossil remains were found in the clay pits of Swindon Brick and Tile Company in 1874, a site now occupied by Halford’s and The Range in Fleming Way and the green space at Spring Gardens. The large fossil remains were sent to Richard Owen, director of the Natural History Museum, for identification. It was the first stegosaur ever named and described by scientists.

While the greatest part of the Swindon Stegosaur remains in London and can be found on display in the Natural History Museum, other smaller parts were taken away by private fossils hunters and dispersed into other collections.

This new artefact for Museum & Art Swindon is a vertebra, advertised as coming from the same location in Swindon. It was found for sale online by local fossil hunters Dr Neville and Sally Hollingworth.

Sally and Neville have been working alongside volunteers and staff at Museum & Art Swindon on identifying parts of the museum’s fossil collection through the Arts Council England-funded ‘Unlocking Collections’ project, and alerted staff to the fossil.

The pair said: “We saw this specimen for sale and realised its importance straight away.

“When the Swindon Stegosaur was collected in the 19th Century some of the original material ended up in private collections and we instantly recognised that the vertebra offered for sale had come from the original site where the skeleton was found.

“We’re delighted that Museum & Art Swindon has put this truly unique find from the town on display and, hopefully, this will help raise awareness about the town's Jurassic past.”

Councillor Marina Strinkovsky, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Placemaking and Planning, said: “Swindon was really important in the history of palaeontology and loads of important fossil hunters lived here or visited Swindon in the late 19th Century to look for specimens.

“The stegosaur ignites the imagination of Swindonians of all ages, and it’s fantastic that a piece of it is coming home.

“I recently saw the stegosaur fossil in the Natural History Museum in London - it’s great to see Swindon represented in one of the capital’s most popular tourist destinations.”

The stegosaur vertebra can be seen now at the museum’s ‘Swindon Rocks’ gallery. Later in the year, the vertebra will form part of the Arts Council England supported ‘Fossil Hunters’ exhibition.