Other quirky visitors to the county during the Victorian era included armour-clad ladies from New York and a giraffe being paraded as part of a menagerie of animals appearing in Shrewsbury’s Market Square.

The history of entertainment in the county has come to light in a new exhibition of Victorian posters which has gone on show at Theatre Severn and The Old Market Hall in Shrewsbury.

• See more of the posters in our gallery to your right

The collections, dating from the 1840s, reveal the exciting variety of entertainment and circuses that the Shropshire public could expect to see in the 19th century.

They include Wombwell’s Menagerie – which brought a giraffe to Shrewsbury’s Market Square in 1854. The poster announces the arrival of the ‘Queen of the Animal Kingdom’ and reveals her name was Jenny Lind, after the famous singer.

Wombwell’s Menagerie brought a giraffe to the Market Square in 1854

Other acts included mimic and ventriloquist Captain Austin, who shared his stage with Oanita, the double-jointed Indian squaw and Amy Dot, a 26-inch tall ‘fairy queen’.

There were also clairvoyant evenings, astronomy displays and a performance by the ‘The Female Christys’– a 15-strong group of armour-clad lady artistes from New York who performed complete with spiked helmets and jewelled breastplates.

One poster declares the arrival of Hartz the illusionist set to perform ‘unbelievable feats of natural and physical magic compared with which everything before attempted sinks into utter insignificance.’

A number of the events shown on the posters took place in Shrewsbury’s Music Hall.

Councillor Mike Owen said: “This exhibition showcases just one of the treasures of the collections held at Shropshire Archives. Shropshire Council is grateful to all those who allow their archive collections to be made accessible to the public, and we would like to thank the Eyton family, in particular, for their permission to exhibit these examples.”

Councillor Andrew Bannerman added: “These posters are spectacular. They illustrate the Victorians’ love of colourful entertainment which was either free or within the reach of almost all pockets. The exhibition harks back to last summer’s Olympian festival, and is a fine appetiser for the forthcoming Olympic Torch and jubilee celebrations.”

The exhibition runs until April 7.