Ancient animal bones found in Brownes’ Hole on display at Frome Museum

It’s hard to imagine an animal as ferocious as a spotted hyaena roaming the countryside around Frome. These bone-crushing animals are more often associated with Africa. But thousands of years ago, they were here and hunting woolly rhinoceros.

Frome Museum will be telling the story of how hyaena bones were found in a cave close to Frome alongside other carnivore remains and some of the animals they were feeding on.

The cave was excavated by a local family, the Brownes, who discovered the bones of long extinct animals as they were digging to unblock a cave at Stoke St Michael, near Frome, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Helped by friends, the Browne family found a large collection of bones including hyaena, bear and wolf. It is now thought that the cave was used as a den by hyaena and bear. The gnawed bones of some of their prey are also found in the cave.

Simon Carpenter and Jo Squirrel, volunteer curators at Frome Museum have been working on the collection over the last year to prepare it for display.

The collection had been languishing in the basement store at the museum for some time and was in quite a sorry state but when Simon and Jo began cleaning the bones, it quickly became apparent how important and interesting the collection would turn out to be. Although parts of the collection have been displayed before, this is the first time that a dedicated exhibition has been attempted. The exhibition  tells the story of the Brownes and their helpers and showcases the different animals they were finding and what this tells us about our changing climate over past thousands of years.

Jane Brayne, a Somerset artist renowned for her illustrations on BBC’s ‘Meet the Ancestors’, has been commissioned to create an original diorama to accompany the display. It’s based on the cave setting and the animals that were found associated with it. The cave is depicted as an active hyaena den with our main star, the spotted hyaena, taking centre stage.

The exhibition will run at Frome Heritage Museum through October and will finish on Saturday 12th November. For more information, visit the museum website, Facebook page or phone 01373 454611.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers and entrance is free but donations are always gratefully received. It is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 2pm and on the Market Sundays at beginning of each month from 11am.