Museum reopening 'a success' when gharial returns

The gharial is currently undergoing specialist restoration

The reopening of a town's art gallery will not be a success until a much-loved crocodile is back on display, says a council leader.

Museum & Art Swindon reopened in July after a four-year closure and campaigners have been calling for the return of a stuffed gharial - a type of crocodile mainly found in India.

The gharial, which is currently undergoing specialist restoration, will not return to the museum at the Civic Offices in Euclid Street until May 2025, according to Swindon Borough Council leader Jim Robbins.

"I won't consider the museum and gallery a success until the gharial is back on display," said Mr Robbins.

Councillor Marina Strinkovsky with the gharial gifted to the museum in 1931 by Maj Morton Hiles

"There is a reason that all the campaigners and people who wanted the museum and gallery opened again had pictures of crocodiles in their front windows," he added.

Gharials are a critically endangered species with fewer than an estimated 1,500 left in the wild.

The Swindon gharial was originally a hunting trophy and its first known owner was Maj Morton Hiles, who lived in India between 1916 and 1922.

He later lived in Warminster and gave the gharial to Warminster School before it was passed to the museum in 1931.

'Proper context'

The appropriateness of the gharial was brought up as the council's overview and scrutiny committee discussed the museum's reopening.

Chairman of the committee, Dale Heenan, raised the issue of it being a hunting trophy, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

In response, councillor Marina Strinkovsky said: "We have to acknowledge that it is not entirely unproblematic. And we want to display it with the proper context."