A BLUE plaque was unveiled in memory of a Sale man who founded Chester Zoo.

Family members gathered outside 131a Northenden Road, Sale, to witness June Williams, 88, a daughter of Mr George Saul Mottershead, unveiling the plaque to her late father.

Mr Mottershead's exploits animal exploits were recently featured in a six-part BBC series Our Zoo.

The person responsible for the blue plaque was local historian George Cogswell, who first discovered the Sale link in 2009, after reading a Chester Zoo magazine, detailing the life of its founder Mr Mottershead. After discovering the link Mr Cogswell embarked on a hunt for information which he was able to turn into a local history booklet.

He said: "I did the book in 2011 and then I thought it was important that we recognised Mr Mottershead."

One Stop Stores sponsored the £650 plaque, which now hangs on the premises, above which the Mottershead's moved to in 1912. Prior to that they had lived at Old Hall Road, Sale Moor.

Sam, when aged just 16 in 1910, opened his own business as a 'physical culture' - or fitness instructor. He organised keep fit classes and within three years was running three physical culture schools - the gyms of the day, including one above the One Stop Store premises and in the building where he lived, which was called Saul's School of Scientific Physical Culture.

With the outbreak of the First War, he closed the schools and joined the army.

During home leave, he got married to Elizabeth Atkinson, aged 27, of Wardle Road, Sale at St Mary Magdalene Church, Ashton on Mersey.

George was wounded nine months later, after a bullet went though his neck and grazed his spinal cord. leaving him completely paralysed.

While George survived the carnage of the conflict, two of his four brothers - Albert and Stanley - were killed.

George’s own physical fitness, strength and determination saved him from spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He drove himself back to mobility and within three years could walk unaided, although with a severe limp.

In 1920, George, his wife Elizabeth, their three-year-old daughter Muriel, and George's parents left Sale.

They moved to a farm cottage in Shavington, near Crewe. George opened a small zoo here.

In 1930 George bought seven acres of land at Upton-by-Chester for £3,500 and Chester Zoo first opened its gates on June 10, 1931.

George earned national and international recognition, including the OBE in 1973, five years before his death aged 83.