Birdworld Birdworld under new ownership

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scottie31

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Just seen this on Facebook, apparently Birdworld and the adjacent garden centre has been acquired by Haskins, the south coast based garden centre business.

Haskins Garden Centre is delighted to confirm the acquisition of Forest Lodge Garden Centre, Garden Style and Birdworld, in Farnham.

I know nothing about the specific success of Haskins, but I do live close to the one in Southampton, and for what its worth they do seem to be a very well run and successful outfit. And the cafe is superb :). Who knows what this means for the future of Birdworld going forward though.
 
Yet another good garden centre gone to the masses
I loved Forest Lodge, they had a decent cafe/restaurant and individual things in the garden centre itself, now it will be just another with all the same stuff
 
amaroc said:
Yet another good garden centre gone to the masses
I loved Forest Lodge, they had a decent cafe/restaurant and individual things in the garden centre itself, now it will be just another with all the same stuff
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From Birdworld’s point of view, though, possibly a good thing. I love the place, having had it as a regular childhood haunt in the 1970s and 1980s, but there’s no doubt it could do with some significant investment, both financial and cultural - despite some nice enough developments over the past decade or so, it’s not exactly at the cutting edge of things...
 
Be interested to see whether a big garden centre will invest money in it or turn the site into an extension of the garden site
Be a shame if it goes, it's not a bad place to visit some interesting species
 
We will have to wait and see what Haskin's policy about Birdworld will be. I visited last autumn and considered Forest Lodge's range of plants good and catering fine; most garden centres are just expensive places to buy plants. And Birdworld itself was o.k. but, as Sooty Mangabey indicates, it was a better collection historically and, despite some recent developments, an injection of capital and imagination is needed if the collection is not to be allowed to run down. Worth pointing out that when Haskin's bought out the Swan Garden Centre, Southampton, in 1991, Little Amazon, that was in the Swan Garden Centre, closed.
 
zooboy said:
Birdworld itself was o.k. but, as Sooty Mangabey indicates, it was a better collection historically
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Most UK bird gardens were 'better historically' - simply because they were dependent on imports through the commercial bird trade, most of which was banned by the EU. A number of larger continental collections seem to have found a way around the 'problem', but that has largely not happened in the UK, where the public's interest in birds has declined as the popularity of reptiles has increased.
 
“Underwater World”, the aquarium which has been a part of Birdworld for a number of years, is to close. In truth, no real loss: even at its best, it was pretty half-hearted, and its best was a long while ago. It did once have its own guidebook, which was possibly the most exciting thing about it.
 
Andrew Swales you say the public interest in birds as declined unsure where you get that from but as a bird watcher in general I have found over the last 5 or so years the public interest in birds as rocketed.
The main problem is we seem to have more or less the same species at each collection which deters many not all birders from visiting.
Birdworld's collection as not been as good as it was for a few years now (same as most collections).
 
An update on Underwater World - a post on the Facebook page for Crocodiles of the World has confirmed that all 1,400 aquatic animals at Underwater World have been successfully rehomed within the UK. Crocodiles of the World themselves have taken on a large number of fish (including what appear to be African cichlids) that are now mixed with some of the crocodiles.
 
I visited today and was disappointed. I have not visited for at least 15 years and it seemed to be a pale shadow of what it used to be. It was certainly popular, the overflow car park was in use and there were lots of families with young children although they all seemed to be headed for the children’s farm at the top end of the site. I hope they have a future but the only new thing I could spot was the Harry Potter Parliament of Owls. Owl enclosures with timber panelling. It was sad to see the penguins swimming in pea green water.
 
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