United Kingdom Hotham Park Zoo, Bognor Regis

Reptile 1517 is very knowledgeable; Sooty Mangabey and Paradoxurus know a lot too.
It is likely that the same guide book was reprinted several times. The introduction to the one the map comes from makes reference to visitor numbers 'By September 1955', so it is obviously later than that but may be the same in all other respects to the 1950 one. It was renamed 'Rainbow's End in about 1984, not long after the bears escaped and presumably when the animals were replaced with rides. I am not sure when the name changed from Pets' Corner to Zootopia but 1978 might be about right and co-incided with a change of ownership. 'Hotham Park Zoo' was being used locally from about 1978-1984.
 
Thanks for that . So my Gran was calling it 'Hotham Park Zoo' in hte late 60s when it was actually 'Pets Corner.' I don't remeber it being any measure of a zoo then. More kids play park, and a few smelly cages is my memory. The smell was 'ripe'. Off-topic, a littel, but my biggest memeory was all that surrounded the zoo, pedal go-karts (heavy but fast high-quality amusement park grade things with pnuematic tyres and my "bestest, bestest" favourtie) and the battery powered red & yellow fibreglass boats, exactly as the psotcard I've put up earlier, and the train. Quite the way any 60s 8-9 years old would have it! (49 now) My real memory is of the park as a whole. Icecream from the Kisok near the house. The organ played near the house too. The crazy & putting green golf, the train and the pond. Given pocket-money by my grandparents to squander on cheap sweets and all that lovely nonsense! A kid allowed to wander on my own? Well, today, that would be considered reason for 'socail service calls', neglectful. It was normal abck then. I walked to school too. Kids did. happy days.
 
Pacu has sent me a Photocopy of a 'Pets Corner' Giude priced 6d. Postmarked 1 July got it yesterday 16th July. Thank you Pacu. I'll put it up. It is post 1955 from a date refrerred to in the text and judging by the 'wardrobe' & hairstyles, of those shown in the pix no later thatn early 60s. The boats shown are the wooden type whereas in teh late 60s the boating lake were Red & Yellow fibreglass type. Guide doesn't give much away, the map inside Pacu has already posted. Shows the "There was an Old woman who lived in a Shoe" & "Miss Muffet's Spiders Web" More pix of "Humpty" 'Judy the monkey' on front cover.

Pacu also sent me thsi link:

By Sylvia Endacott Local historian. I like talking to Sylvia!

The face of Bognor has continued to evolve - Chichester Today

From the local paper so it may not stay current for long. If I rembere I will ask Sylvia If I can copy it in here.

And

Park plan workmen dig in - Bognor Today
 
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Hello as a new person to this page forgive meif I get it all wrong!
I happened across this page in a very odd chain of websites, but find myself reading every post! and picture with a smile on my face.
I grew up in bognor when my family moved to the area when I was 4 I have spent so many happy summers in Hotham Park, and all the memories came flooding back. I dont think I have any photographs, but now will be forced to go and have a look for some.

This is what I remember or have been told! in the years i guess 1974 to mid 80's
I remember mickey and humpty and am sure many pics were taken, I spent summers with my brother and nan there, and she lived on the bench outside the boating lake across from the train station. I remember the fibre class boats and the bumper cars.
As for inside Rainbows end as I knew it although I also remeber the name Zootopia! they did have a cave with the 7 dwarves but all the anamatronics were added later when the animals were removed.
The animals I remember were a black puma, tigre (always pacing :-( ) other large cats, bears there were 3. I think I remember penguins, lots of other standard zoo type animals, but the tiger and cats I remember very clearly!

The story I was told about the bears is that one excaped and was shot, the other 2 were then removed, I guess health and saftey!. The bear pit was then used as a sinclair C5 racetrack, which I can remember being great fun!

As for what is there now, it remained deralict for a very long time, and now they have cleared the site, we have a big field and a half empty lake! The best part of the clear up was the rejuvination of the boating lake, and it now is exactly the same as it was in the 70's except it now costs £4 for a boat.

The trains are now running again, the council did the dirty on the train owner about 5/6 ears ago, and he left taking the track with him (back to Eastbourne and Worthing) I remeber the wooden sided train in the pics and I think I road on it most days in the summer.

The putting green and crazy golf! are the same!! yes even down to the dodgy astro turf! the tennis corts have gone, and there is a new playground. but guess what the cafe and the bandstand are exactly the same buildings! although there is talk of a new tree top cafe.

They lost lots of trees in the huricane of 1987 something like 40/50% including all the beautiful Rhodedendrums that I can remember building camps in.

I will finish for now, as I think I may go on all night! I will leave just in saying, that my dad at some point did some work (building) for the park owner, and claimed he built the little miniture house which I think had small pets in at some point! knowing my dad this may be an exageration! but I know I always wanted him to build one for me at home!

I loved Rainbows end, It was 70 kitch and the kids of today would think of other 4 letter words for it, but I loved it...

Tina

pps the boating lake in the video on u tube shows the other boating lake the one that is now under fitzlete carpark it was shaped like a map of England and was fantastic too!
 
Rambling no. Don't be so 'kin daft!!

i got your psot 5 mins after you posted it. I love youre memoreis, and hte rambling on. Don't stop! Gibber on all you liek! Now go to flickr.com and see my Waterloo gardens model yacht pond pix. Known as the Princess elizabeth yacht pond, it was where I sepnt so much time as a kid. Think you'll like it.

Bognor Model Boat Boating Yacht Pool Pond - a set on Flickr

or google: 'bognor Princess elizabeth yacht pond flickr'

TTFN
 
yes that is the one i remember paddling in! and running round, remember the little coloured tiles of places on the sides, was so sad when they filled it with tarmac!

Did you know! I was told by someone that was born in Bognor that under the boating lake was a large water container burried for use during the war as a reserve surply. The people were told when the war was over they would use it to convert into a swimming pool for the town. When it came to it! (Bognor council that is) they gave them the boating lake instead! how true I will let you decide?

Tina
p.s sorry about typo's!
 
soupdragon . You remember the tiles

i keep hearing odd snippets, here and tehre. Your typos, jeezzz. i fail too?!

Glad you liekd te yacht pond. i've been collecting pix.

Interesting about the promise of a swimming pool?

Off topic a litle, but i ear teh same fate ahs befallen zoos 7 Hotham Park, a boating lake, its jsut woudl not work with kids of today. But why? This worries me slightly, it was a gentle pleaure that as a kid I loved. So what happened? I still ahve that yacht, and take it with my boy to the local park where they still ahve a boaitng lake. But its not used by kids anymore, only big kids liek me and hte local model boat club, (almost all sporting face hair, but er, why is that - yet facial fuzz aside, nice blokes really, ) So now, a boating pond is not for kids? Its not the boating bit I question, more the 'why kids can't do that sort of thing?' But i'm sounding like a grumpy-old-man, which i suppose I am.

i suspect I know. Quick-fix amusemnet.

Nope my boy won't ever get a gameboy Nintendo and mush for a brain.Boredom is a good thing, not becaue you're made bored, but becaue it forces your attention and tenacity, and makes you think. So you're not bored for long. My boy will not be given some instant easy-fix gratiifcation. He gets a book. and you know, what he loves it. But am I right? That, I don't know.

Se I can ramble too.

I have jsut found a picy of Hotham park pond, I took it myself age 11. On my bellows box camera (with Kodak 127 film if i rember)

I've got afe things to scan for thsi site. Standby.

Oh yes, when i do run my old sailing yacht, so alien is the concept, htat when it turns, people look for a person controlling it and tehn ask where the batteries go? I tel them its teh wind and for a second, they not quite sure to believe me. i kid you not! a toy without battreies? NEVER! I treid to buy my boy a pedal car, I stuggled, you know what? The battery powerd ones , (I refused to buy the things) , were more plentiful, and cheaper. Todays kid isn't even required to pedal!!


Utter madness! Or is it me, i must sound old?
 
Hi,

I have been collecting postcards and any memorbilia that I can find of Hotham Park for the past few years now. I have quite a number of postcards and a few badges, one the same as already posted. Also the guide book.

I too spent many happy hours there as a child with my father, I remember the boats, go carts, all the characters; the mouse, the old shoe, spiders web, humpty dumpty, and of corse the animals. I was quite young when we went, my father died when I was 7, so my memories are fairly sketchy now. However I wanted to re create the time I spent there, so I started collecting bits and bobs to do with Rainbows End.

I also trawl through the net looking for pics of the place! So nice to see other pictures, I don't have any of myself and my father sadly. Just memories. I didn't see the place after the 70's as it was my father who took me there and not any other family members; so I have a very brief memory.

I would have loved to have gone back, but it wasn't to be. So I now have postcards to look back and reminise :)

Any groups around I would gladly join and chat about Rainbows End too. It's so very nice to read all the stories :)

Jackie.
 
jaycat Fantantic to hear your memories. Can we have some scans of your pix and postcards. It sounds liek you've doen a better job trawling than me. i'll put them up for all to see. The stuff i put up is very often poosr quality because that is all I could get. I too want to capture. best I can, that time in my life.

Another memory: My brother insists there was a drinking fountain in the park soemwhere, he thinks it was near the pond. but I htink I rember one by the hosue, or was there two? As far as I kow htis is hte only info I've ever really found on Hotham park, save for stuff from Sylvia.
 
I will gladly put my postcards up for you to see, I don't have any photos unfortunatly, my mother decided to throw all the childhood ones away before I had time to save them :(

I will have to ask my other half to show me how, and she's busy until the weekend, working and finishing a dissertation. I assume there's instructions on the site somewhere as to how to upload images, (never scanned anything before!!)

I have 6 badges, 13 postcards, the guide book, along with a few postcards with multiple images. I will post them here as soon as possible for you to enjoy. I go to local postcards fairs, and am always looking out for new ones and other memorabilia to add.

I think because I was so young I remember the characters best, along with the train and boats, my father would not let me go on the go carts!! I also remember the smaller animals, geese and ducks, rabbits etc.

Great days!!

J
 
Too much? Definitely not. i'll put them up on Flickr as well.

We'd love to se your stuff. Too much? Are you mad! You ahve more than teh rest of us put together. i can't wait.

Too much? NEVER. Definitely not. i'll put them up on Flickr as well. if you're not sure how to do, send tehm to me and I'll throw the lot up. i've a graphics background, so its waht I do, but no big deal for beginners eitehr.

Shame about your own pesonal pix, both for you personally and for us. Things liek tha should never be thrown.

For me it was the go-karts adn my Gran siitng in the shade by hte bandstand, whilst I scoffed ice-ccream. Looking throught the arched window at the boats. The er, 'hum' from hte zoo. Jeez, it did! The carzy golf, and the sound of hte hooter of hta train all around the park. late 60s 68-72 I reckon, It was a Lyons maid 'Fab' from hte kiosk. You can still buy them. Gran 'might' have a vanilla wafer, those you can't.

A bit of text fo Google to find. Hotham Park Zoo Bognor Regis Rainbows End Pets corner
 
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hotham park

Hotham fan I couldnt agree with you more about things with batteries! and I susspect I should embrace the electricals, but give my boy a cardboard tube, some paper and a cardboard box and he is happy!
(not that this is all he has) he enjoys his lego, and wooden train set!

Jackie I can too have no photos of Rainbows end, and after a lot of thinking I can only work out this must have been that my parents never took me to the park, only ever my Nan and I dont remember her having a camera. I think my first camera would have been when I was 10 so just have to try to remember what was there. I too remember a water fountain, I will try to think where.

The other thing I remembered was Rainbows end was the first place I ever went to a ball pit, I guess these would have been rare in the 80's because I dont remember seeing one before. I can remember thinking it was the best thing I had been on! and it was outdoors, so I dont know if they emptyied it in the winter!

I will have a chat with my brother as I am sure he will remember more than me!!

Tina
 
thesoupdragon said:
the first place I ever went to a ball pit,
Click to expand...

In later years, what had once been the seal pool - sponsored by Lec (local manufacturers of electrical goods) - was converted into a rather nasty looking ball pit. This may have been when all the animals had gone; I visited in the mid 90s, and it was a desperate place, with many of the former cages converted into awful 'adventure' things.
 
Just got hold of a book "Bognor regis A Pictorial History" Vanessa Mills,mostly pre 1960s Bognor, doesn't show too much Hotham park, one decent piccy of Mickey, a snap of the boating lake in the 50s with the clocktower in hte background, and teh same piccy I've already posted of hte the 'Pet Hospital.' But two very good early pics of hte yacht pond. I'll scan whenn I get mo'
 
My collection.

Hi,

ok, this has taken me hours!! The scanner decided it didn't want to know the laptop, either of them! So I decided to take photos of all my memorabilia and upload to photobucket, and then here, this had better work!!!

If anyone wants them scanned I can pop over to the library in the week and ask a librarian to show me how to use their scanner. I'll let you all decide.

The first 2 are the badges, the rest are the postcards, I also have the booklet, however I've only just remembered that I didn't take a piccy of it.


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Here are my postcards. Enjoy :)

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Right, that's my collection!! If anyone has annything different I'd be delighted to see them. As I say my memories are mainly of the characters and the boats; not sure my Dad would let me on the go carts!!

Hope you all like them, and if you want them scanned, let me know please.

Jackie.

Won't let me post more than 6 at a time, so the others will follow. J
 
Here we go...last one, think you may have seen this one before though, but hope you enjoy it anyway!

Also check out youtube "Bognor 1964," it has a few seconds of Hotham Park pets corner on it.

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I have another one coming next week of the train, it's colour, and again I'm sure you have seen it.

J.
 
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