Wool-I-Am the museum mammoth gets a sweet spring clean

The town museum’s most famous resident got a much needed spruce up thanks to a young schoolboy from Ipswich.

Earlier this year four-year-old James Smith, and his big sister Amelia, showed their entrepreneurial spirit by running an after school sweet sale to raise funds for Wool-I-Am.

James, who is a pupil at Witnesham primary school near Ipswich, managed to raise an impressive £50 to donate to the museum which he has been visiting since he was a baby.

The enthusiastic siblings were rewarded for their efforts by getting the unique opportunity to clean the museum’s mammoth, under the watchful eye of conservation officers Bob Entwistle and Edward McGlinchey.

James and Ameila also got to meet the Mayor of Ipswich Jane Riley who presented them with the first ever Ipswich Museum Junior Ambassador certificates.

Manager of Ipswich Museum James Steward, said: “The sweet sale was fantastic and I was very proud to meet the children and to say thank you.

“We want to reach out to this new generation and have made James and Amelia our first Junior Ambassadors. Moving forward, we would like to appoint one in each school so we can encourage more people to come here to learn and enjoy all the treasures we have here.”