Mammoth plaudits for Exeter's RAMM

It was a mammoth occasion when Wool-I–Am met Gerald the Giraffe at Exeter's museum.

Wool-I-Am is the icon of Ipswich Museum and was named this autumn when hundreds of Radio 2 fans of the Chris Evans show took part in an impromptu competition.

Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) is one of the UK museums most admired by Ipswich Borough Council's culture chief Bryony Rudkin, so when she attended a management conference in the city she took Wool-I-Am along.

"I am quite a frequent visitor to RAMM," Councillor Rudkin said. "I am eager to learn more from our colleagues there about promoting collections and attracting more visitors to our museums so I thought I would take along our mammoth friend to meet Gerald, which is Exeter museum's icon. We were thrilled in Ipswich when Radio 2 listeners named Wool-I-Am and now he has a friend perhaps we can get him and Gerald on the show together."

Councillor Rudkin, who was in Exeter in her role as Regional Improvement Peer of the Local Government Association, handed over a toy mammoth to RAMM Manager Camilla Hampshire following her speech to delegates about local government priorities.