It is now the Welsh Hawking Centre. It was a full-blown zoo for many years to start with. Most of the animals were dispersed in the early 80s though the current owner kept some lions for several years afterwards.
Yes it was the old Barry ( not Barry Island as featured on 'Gavin and Stacey') . When I was young it was my 'local zoo' and I used to nag my family to take me there over the Easter holidays most years - that would be going on for 50 years ago ! A couple of old guide books are prized possessions .
I remember the leopard in that cage , it was bred there and hand-reared , the owner could go in with it . The cage was still there earlier this year , even more over-grown now . The Lion enclosure , now netted over , looks very ramshackle , but houses pairs of eagles . Pairs of brown and Himalayan bears lived in tiny cages , still there apart from the barred fronts .
It was a general collection with lions , leopards , pumas tiger , sea-lions , wolves , a female Asian elephant , an enormous male mandrill , lion-tailed macaques etc. , all very basic . A long-term resident was Melody the chimp who lived quietly in retirement at Twycross until fairly recently .
Two current zoo professionals started their zoo careers as teenagers there - John Partridge at Bristol and Alan Woodward at Chester .
