Wicksteed Park Wicksteed Park

Jedd Cullinan

Jedd Cullinan

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Wicksteed Park now has a new Meerkat Manor exhibit. Last year it went to administration but the brilliant news is Wicksteed Park has now been saved and it's reopened
Wicksteed-Park_Meerkat-Manor_Manor_Visual.jpg
 
Jedd Cullinan said:
Wicksteed Park now has a new Meerkat Manor exhibit. Last year it went to administration but the brilliant news is Wicksteed Park has now been saved and it's reopened
Wicksteed-Park_Meerkat-Manor_Manor_Visual.jpg
Click to expand...
Wicksteed Park did not go into administration and did not need saving.
It was the management company which ran it, which was wound up - not the Park.
 
Are theme parks such as this exempt from pre-booking requirements, because Wicksteed do not have a system in place yet?

Okay, I'm assuming that most places have pre-booking in place voluntarily.
 
Last edited:
It'll be interesting to see what it actually *looks* like when photographs pop up anon.... in my experience concept art often looks a lot better (and more ambitious) than the real thing!
 
littleRedPanda said:
Are theme parks such as this exempt from pre-booking requirements, because Wicksteed do not have a system in place yet?

Okay, I'm assuming that most places have pre-booking in place voluntarily.
Click to expand...
Think you have to book for theme parks same as with zoos.
Definitely do for Alton towers so would imagine others are the same.
 
littleRedPanda said:
Are theme parks such as this exempt from pre-booking requirements, because Wicksteed do not have a system in place yet?

Okay, I'm assuming that most places have pre-booking in place voluntarily.
Click to expand...

All pre-booking systems are voluntary, so far as I know - and there is no formal requirement.
But, 'trade' bodies like BIAZA, and BALPPA (of which Wicksteed is a member) have made it very clear that all members should have systems in place which can show that they have mitigated the uncontrolled numbers seen at National Trust properties and public areas in the past.
Pre-booking and capped numbers, is the usual response to that.
 
Last edited:
sparkes12 said:
Think you have to book for theme parks same as with zoos.
Definitely do for Alton towers so would imagine others are the same.
Click to expand...
I checked out Alton Towers, Chessington and Thorpe Park which had their on the gate prices crossed out. Then I found Legoland, with the same website format, did not have theirs crossed out.
Wicksteed say their booking system will hopefully be in place in the coming months. Also, I think their walkthrough aviary is open too, but I have no idea what they have in there.
 
SHAVINGTONZOO said:
Well, it's one way of describing it.

Vulgar would be another.

;)
Click to expand...

Wicksteed is a Theme Park, not a zoo under anything other than the specific legal definition, set up specifically as a leisure park by Charles Wicksteed for the benefit of the people of Kettering from the proceeds of the engineering businesses he owned, one of which made playground equipment.
This latest meerkat enclosure replaces another only built very recently; a couple of years ago - which was based around underground tunnels for children,which presumably had an access issue for social distancing under Covid measures. This was basically a children's tunnel maze, with sand covering the tunnels and meerkats living on top of it. I'm sure that children would have considered it 'cool' too, but perhaps not many on here.
They have also built an 'aviary' of some kind, replacing/expanding on the budgie walk-through also very recently constructed. So - far from any threat, the Park has considerably expanded with many new rides too, during its closure last year. It is still owned by the same charitable trust, which put its management company in administration with the loss of 115 jobs. Presumably the new company which it created is much more streamlined?
All of this is public knowledge, well covered by the local media.
edit - being very local to us, it is a place we know very well. I personally was taken many times as a child. A wrist-band and ticketing system allows access into the 'rides' in which the meerkats and aviaries are now included. Historically there have always been animals of some kind on the site, and when I was a child in addition to public aviaries and bird paddocks, a ticketed children's zoo (called a 'pets corner') also existed, where I remember seeing a Sun Bear and a Kinkajou.
Postcards exist of this, but are rare - and I do not have any personal photos.
 
Last edited:
Andrew Swales said:
Wicksteed is a Theme Park, not a zoo under anything other than the specific legal definition, set up specifically as a leisure park by Charles Wicksteed for the benefit of the people of Kettering from the proceeds of the engineering businesses he owned, one of which made playground equipment.
This latest meerkat enclosure replaces another only built very recently; a couple of years ago - which was based around underground tunnels for children,which presumably had an access issue for social distancing under Covid measures. This was basically a children's tunnel maze, with sand covering the tunnels and meerkats living on top of it. I'm sure that children would have considered it 'cool' too, but perhaps not many on here.
They have also built an 'aviary' of some kind, replacing/expanding on the budgie walk-through also very recently constructed. So - far from any threat, the Park has considerably expanded with many new rides too, during its closure last year. It is still owned by the same charitable trust, which put its management company in administration with the loss of 115 jobs. Presumably the new company which it created is much more streamlined?
All of this is public knowledge, well covered by the local media.
edit - being very local to us, it is a place we know very well. I personally was taken many times as a child. A wrist-band and ticketing system allows access into the 'rides' in which the meerkats and aviaries are now included. Historically there have always been animals of some kind on the site, and when I was a child in addition to public aviaries and bird paddocks, a ticketed children's zoo (called a 'pets corner') also existed, where I remember seeing a Sun Bear and a Kinkajou.
Postcards exist of this, but are rare - and I do not have any personal photos.
Click to expand...
Well for your information about this in fact it's not just meerkats as there's also Alpacas, Goats, Ponies, Sheep, Spanish Mule and Birds
 
Jedd Cullinan said:
Well for your information about this in fact it's not just meerkats as there's also Alpacas, Goats, Ponies, Sheep, Spanish Mule and Birds
Click to expand...
They may have had in the past Jedd, but having just asked via facebook, they only have "meerkats, an aviary with parrots etc, goats and ducks" these days.
 
Andrew Swales said:
Wicksteed is a Theme Park, not a zoo under anything other than the specific legal definition, set up specifically as a leisure park by Charles Wicksteed for the benefit of the people of Kettering from the proceeds of the engineering businesses he owned, one of which made playground equipment.
This latest meerkat enclosure replaces another only built very recently; a couple of years ago - which was based around underground tunnels for children,which presumably had an access issue for social distancing under Covid measures. This was basically a children's tunnel maze, with sand covering the tunnels and meerkats living on top of it. I'm sure that children would have considered it 'cool' too, but perhaps not many on here.
They have also built an 'aviary' of some kind, replacing/expanding on the budgie walk-through also very recently constructed. So - far from any threat, the Park has considerably expanded with many new rides too, during its closure last year. It is still owned by the same charitable trust, which put its management company in administration with the loss of 115 jobs. Presumably the new company which it created is much more streamlined?
All of this is public knowledge, well covered by the local media.
edit - being very local to us, it is a place we know very well. I personally was taken many times as a child. A wrist-band and ticketing system allows access into the 'rides' in which the meerkats and aviaries are now included. Historically there have always been animals of some kind on the site, and when I was a child in addition to public aviaries and bird paddocks, a ticketed children's zoo (called a 'pets corner') also existed, where I remember seeing a Sun Bear and a Kinkajou.
Postcards exist of this, but are rare - and I do not have any personal photos.
Click to expand...

12108056_905942182817761_7603949245436432891_n.png
Wicksteed Pets Corner (Children's Zoo) in 1956
Stocked by (and with animals from) Wellingborough Zoo
 

Attachments

  • 12108056_905942182817761_7603949245436432891_n.png
    12108056_905942182817761_7603949245436432891_n.png
    423.3 KB · Views: 151
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top