It is quite likely, the zoo -owners also ran that same petshop, which was attached. In fact they used to breed animals in their zoo for selling in their petshop!!
Enquiry about two former zoos
- Thread starter chimpman
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- basildon gatwick
It is quite likely, the zoo -owners also ran that same petshop, which was attached. In fact they used to breed animals in their zoo for selling in their petshop!!
Thanks Pertinax, that is right then "cressida" did indeed come from Bideford, she was actually a quite long lived animal and died at Chessington, she lived with male "Sinbad" for the whole time she lived at Chessington, though when "Sinbad" died of a stroke they tried her with another male "Friday" but they were largely incompatible, so "Friday" returned leaving "Cressida" alone.
Correct. One of the Columbian Spider Monkeys called "Margaret" was a rather special animal, she was the dominant breeding female and regularly
produced off-spring, on one occasion she gave birth and was rearing her own young when another younger female gave birth shortly afterwards
, however she rejected her off-spring and so "Margaret" took that infant on too and successfully reared BOTH off-spring, which was possibly the first time that had occured in that species in the UK (?).
Gatwick was indeed started as a private collection, as so many do, which had grown into a public attraction over time. The owners were very much hands on and involved both sons in the running of the collection too.
When I went past while ago it looked as though they were building houses though i did see the pet shop and garden center too I assume the building work wasn't on the zoo site.
It must have been in the little guidebook I mentioned then, as I definately knew the names from somewhere. I don't have it anymore so I can't check.
Can anyone help as to whether the Bideford Zoo changed hands and stayed open after the reported closure of 1970 ? I was talking to one of the old Owner / Directors once who told me that they never had elephants during her time with the zoo and she told me that the zoo went into someone elses hands and remained open for 2 seasons once they had sold up and moved on.. and yes they did have Chimps and ones name was Judy ....For anyone that is interested I have a blog and am writing short histories and info about some of the closed zoos... its not fantastic but keeps me amused ..... all information would be gratefully received
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No - the owners of Basildon retired after selling the site and Yolande sadly passed away some years ago (John is still alive today and in his 80's)
Just spoke with Bob Hands who owned Bideford from around 1968-1970 and then sold it (moving on to establish Basildon Zoo in 1972), it was developed for housing after he sold Bideford Zoo.
There was always a pet shop / animal dealer at the front of Basildon; it is depicted in the tv secret filming of the lion being sold when the whole places was on the ropes but others who visited before then have said it was always grim.