Dromore joins the mammoth madness

The museum had caught the attention of producers of Sara Cox’s Radio Two breakfast programme and Ipswich council’s head of culture, Gordon Mole, went on the programme to talk about the mammoth and challenge listeners to come up with a name.

Interest took off with thousands of people reading tweets about the museum and e-mailing suggestions for a name – but the early favourite, as suggested by Kevin, is “Wool I Am”.

The Hillsborough dentist said: “I was sitting having breakfast on Wednesday morning, feeling even more sleepy than usual - no-one’s a morning person in our house.

“My wife and I were listening to the Chris Evans Breakfast Show, Sarah Cox was standing in for Chris, and they were talking about the Mammoth at Ipswich museum who was looking for a name.

“Although only half awake, there must have been some brain activity as I thought woolly mammoth sounds a little bit like William, or better still Wool.i.am just like the ‘The Black Eyed Peas’ front man and judge on The Voice - Will.i.am!

“Although my wife was busy trying to get lunches made before work, she thought it was too good a suggestion not to submit, so she contacted the show via their Facebook page.

“I had gone upstairs to get ready for work but was still listening to the radio when Sarah announced that she had an outright winner - Kevin with Wool-I-Am. It took a minute for it to sink in as I was thinking - that’s strange - someone with my name who made the same suggestion as me.

“Then I heard my wife screaming excitedly downstairs and it twigged! I was late for my first patient that morning, but she was very understanding when I explained why.

Mr Mole was delighted that the museum – and the mammoth – had attracted the nation’s attention.

He said: “We are very proud of what we have on show here.

“The mammoth is, of course, a life-size model, but we also have fossils of the real thing found in the area.

Among the other names suggested were Malcolm, Morton, Tiny, Jumper - because it’s woolly, and Tusky, however Mr Mole wouldn’t commit to a name at this stage.

“We’re going to look at all the suggestions and it will be up to the young members of our Mini Mammoth club to decide during the summer.”

Sarah concluded the show still backing Dromore though.

“Wool-I-Am is still my favourite” she said.