THERE has been plenty of sightings of a seal in the Mersey over the past few weeks.

So this week in Yester Years, we thought we would bring you the story of perhaps Warrington’s most famous animal.

Nobody who has visited Warrington Museum could have done so without seeing the grey seal which is on display.

But where did he come from and how did he end up in Warrington?

Well on June 17, 1908 this seal was shot at Paddington Lock (better known as Dobby’s Lock) in the Mersey, near Warrington.

It is 8 feet long and 5 feet around the chest, weighing 13,00 pounds in weight.

This is about 660 kilograms or more than 104 stones.

Grey seals are usually spotted in Britain along the rocky coasts of West Scotland, the Hebrides and the Orkneys.

This seal is thought to have lost its way and swum up the Mersey in high tide into the lock, chasing the salmon that used to populate the Mersey at the turn of the century.

Once the seal had been spotted in distress, the gates were closed and the seal had to be shot as by now the water level was too low for the seal to swim back.

Warrington Guardian:
The seal was discovered in the early 1900s

The seal was so heavy it took several men to haul it onto the bank.

The seal was bought by the museum for £7 and taken away to be mounted.

In 1908, the seal went on permanent display at the museum and attracted 14,000 extra visitors that year.

Originally when first displayed the seal did not have the smiling mouth it has now.

The taxidermist had mounted the seal with its jaws wide apart and had blanked the mouth off with painted plaster.

In 1999, James Dickinson, a natural history conservator removed the plaster and made replica teeth and jaws using moulds from an adult grey seal skull. The seal’s eyes were painted brown and missing whiskers were replaced, using some ‘rescued’ from an old tiger.

The seal was put in storage back in 2012 while renovation work took place in Warrington Museum, but it is back on display and remains one of the most popular items based in the museum.

At the time the story of the seal featured in both the Warrington Guardian and the Warrington Examiner.