When Jonah the whale came to Bradford on a tour of the UK

This was the bizarre sight that greeted curious visitors to the junction of Leeds Road and Vicar Lane back in 1970, when a fin whale that was touring the UK appeared in the district.

We were alerted to this whale of a story recently when T&A reader Alan Whitfield got in touch with his recollection of “Jonah, a smelly fin whale which was taken around the country on a large trailer.”

A dip into the T&A archive turned up just one cutting, from September 25, 1970, reporting on children from Ryan Street and Green Lane Infants Schools looking at the 68ft whale on show. The caption says: “Jonah is his name and he was nine-years-old when caught off the Norwegian coast. He was brought to Britain by the World Wildlife Fund.”

Harpooned in 1952, Jonah was one of three dead fin whales which were paraded around the country in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Thousands of people visited the preserved finbacks.

The whale also made it to Keighley. In 2006 Mark Worden wrote to the T&A recalling the whale: “I have a postcard album and in it is a postcard bought from this travelling show when it came to Keighley in, I believe, 1971. I was nine or 10 at the time and have a vague recollection of driving to Keighley with my family and walking to a piece of land to see this travelling show.

“Behind a screen of old hessian sacks was a lorry with the carcass of a whale called Jonah on it, packed with ice to stop it going off I presume, and every day it was painted with formalin to stop it rotting away.”

CM Thomas of Cross Roads responded to Mark’s letter: “I have always had a memory of my grandma taking me to see a whale and knowing its name was Jonah. But whenever I mentioned it, no-one else could recall this. I too would have been 10-years-old then. At the time I wasn’t sure whether I liked the show. On the one hand it was a chance to see something never seen at such close quarters, but as a child I felt sad for the whale, being paraded all over the UK.”

We called out recently for more memories of Jonah and got a lively response on the T&A’s We Grew Up in Bradford Facebook page:

Gilly Mags recalls: “I remember seeing it as a child in the 1950s. Enormous it was. It was on a derelict site that was part of the old Forster Square. As a kid I thought it was a bomb site but I don’t think that part of Bradford got bombed.

“You could buy a photo of the whale and we had it for years, but like all things, got chucked out on a house move.

"I didn’t think it was gruesome, more fascinating. After all, how often do you get to see a whale, albeit a dead one, up close? I’ve not met many people who saw it or remember seeing it and even though I was young, the image is in my mind to this day.”

Irene Roberts wasn’t so impressed: “Quite disgusting really. My older brother took me to see it, I can remember being so small at the side of it. I didn’t realise what it was.”

Baden Buckle writes: “I was about 10-years-old. I went to see the whale near Forster Square close to Canal Road. It smelt awful.”

Andrea Goodrum says: “I remember seeing the whale, it was on a big open platform like a truck. It was just below the Exchange station opposite where Primark is now. Would have been around 1968.”

* There are no photos in the T&A archive of the whale in Bradford. If anyone has one, we'd love to share it. Email emma.clayton@nqyne.co.uk