Another closed collection is the Loch Lomond Bear Park also latteraly known as the Cameron Wildlife Park. Does anyone have any photos they can post of the park, especially the original drive-through polar bear enclosure?
Missed Collections
- Thread starter adrian1963
- Start date
The one I miss is Winged World. I had a holiday in Morecambe in 1976 and managed to visit three times in one week. There were so many interesting birds, but I did not have the equipment to take decent photos.
I also got pecked by a Bali Starling in the free flight area.
I also got pecked by a Bali Starling in the free flight area.
I'm sure you're right. For most of its history Belle Vue probably had the second biggest collection of any zoo in the UK (second only to Regent’s Park obviously).
Although in some respects it was the sort of zoo that I generally don’t like very much (i.e. commercialised, associated with a fairground / amusement park) it was such a historically important collection that I very much regret never having visited it.
I agree with you about Gatwick and Rode; both were very nice little collections and I much enjoyed all my visits there. However, I cannot honestly say that I greatly miss them now that they’ve closed; on the whole I much prefer large comprehensive collections (which is why the two Berlin zoos are, without doubt, my all time favourites).
I also entirely concur with your opinion about Cricket St. Thomas. It was a lovely setting for a zoo, probably one of the most attractive sites of any UK animal collection. Unfortunately, though, I was always somewhat disappointed after my visits as, in my opinion, it never really seemed to fulfil the potential provided by such a nice setting.
Southport Mandrills
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Sorry, DassieRat, I've obliterated your post mistakenly by pressing 'edit' instead of 'Quote'. It happens occassionally...
These days I much prefer small collections, particularly bird gardens or predominantly bird collections. If I could choose an era I missed at a particular zoo, it would be the late 1960s at Flamingo Park. Oh to go back there with my current cameras.
I never visited Belle Vue, but I wish I had.
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
@ Pertinax one of the female Southport Mandrills ended up going to the wonderfull South Wales Primate Rescue Centre,that also took their Chimps,in fact she may well still be there,when I last visted she was being kept with a Spider Monkey of some type.
Yes I would be grateful of any photos/information anyone would have of this park, I unfortunately never visited,a drive through polar bear enclosure, sounds amazing!
Yes vis a vis several comments on that strange little childrens zoo at Heysham..it was shockingly poor particularly when Winged World next door was so brilliant..to this day the best bird house this country ever had.More on Belle Vue and in particular the book "At Home In The Zoo"..this was merely the successor to a radio show and,yes, a BBC television series of the same name hosted by zoo manager Gerald Iles in the early to mid-fifties beating Attenborough by some years i might add.As far as is known no recordings of either exist.I tracked the man down to his Montreal home 10 years ago[he was 93 then and has since died],although decrepit in body his mind was razor-sharp..oh what stories!He knew them all...Grzimek,Hediger,my hero Katharina Heinroth,Bob Bean,Peter Scott-he even let Durrell house the animals from his first South American collecting trip at BV,he was more than helpful to a new little zoo down the road at Chester too....Lest we forget.
Yes, thanks for that one, I did know about her. I think she may have been handraised/desocialised which is why she went there?
The odd thing is Southport bred an awful lot of Mandrills over the years, and only a few singles seem to have been sent out to other places. But when it closed only a relatively small number seemed to go to Trotters(1.3?) and Heythrop.(3-4?) Maybe their groups had diminished in size by then.
The group at Chester also contains Southport blood as the females all came from Colchester, who's group was originally founded with a London/Southport mix of animals.
The female Mandrill from Southport was very young when received at SWPRC and was hand-reared there . The very old pair of Spider Monkeys from Southport also went to Wales , I do not think they lived there very long though .
I did like Southport Zoo , though its setting with Roller-Coasters whizzing around it was far from ideal . They did seem to do well with their stock , many of which lived a very long time there .
I do miss Penscynor , particularly as it was so close to where I live . I think it was much more of a 'proper zoo' than the West Wales collections that still exist . I was fortunate to visit Kilverstone several times over the years and saw how its collection increased , I think it is a great loss . The old Birdland , though very small , was a real gem . The Flamingo Gardens at Olney ( owned by Christopher Marler ) had an amazing collection of larger birds , I suppose comparable to Blackbrook now . Stagsden was another nice bird collection .
A few collections I visited but are no great loss - Bridgemere , Southam , Thorney - though all had a number of very interesting species on show .
I did like Southport Zoo , though its setting with Roller-Coasters whizzing around it was far from ideal . They did seem to do well with their stock , many of which lived a very long time there .
I do miss Penscynor , particularly as it was so close to where I live . I think it was much more of a 'proper zoo' than the West Wales collections that still exist . I was fortunate to visit Kilverstone several times over the years and saw how its collection increased , I think it is a great loss . The old Birdland , though very small , was a real gem . The Flamingo Gardens at Olney ( owned by Christopher Marler ) had an amazing collection of larger birds , I suppose comparable to Blackbrook now . Stagsden was another nice bird collection .
A few collections I visited but are no great loss - Bridgemere , Southam , Thorney - though all had a number of very interesting species on show .
karenZOO
Well-Known Member
I definitely miss Kilverstone, was a fantastic place to visit when I had little ones, who still remember the pooh throwing chimps and the Falabella horse displays. I can also remember Lady Fisher would wander around with various tiny baby monkeys. Going to have to dig out a guide book now to reminisce, Can remember the 'walled' part (complete with pooh throwing chimps) and the childrens rides but the rest is a blur!!
Bele has beaten me to it as I was going to mention the original Birdland and Flamingo Gardens, which were both very special places to visit.
I knew Birdland better, particularly in the early 70's: it was tiny in area, and so the aviaries and houses were small and packed together. It reflected the personality of its creator, Len Hill, a local builder, so many of the aviaries and houses were built of Cotswold stone, which I assume was left over from building jobs in the area (where there are strict rules about building materials). There were tiny flowerbeds with little ceramic plaques with quirky comments. But the whole point was the birds; any Curator of Birds in the UK today would feel faint before getting half way down the list. I remember Lear's macaw (2 females unfortunately), swift parakeet, Salvadori's lory, black-capped lory, black lory, Wilson's & red birds of paradise, mountain witch dove, Emperor shag with the King penguins and more hummingbirds than you could shake a stick at, some commoner species of parrots plus quite a few more that I have forgotten.
I only visited Flamingo Gardens once, but I have some special memories - a rosy flamingo nesting so close to the fence that when she stood up I could look down on her egg, a Siberian white crane in a very large mixed aviary (one of a series), a pair of kelp geese, great bustards and white-tailed eagles. I also remember that the birds of prey must have been fed just before I saw them because each of the aviaries had a large section of deer carcase inside.
I also enjoyed visiting Belle Vue, Kilverstone and Rode. I didn't visit most of the other places mentioned in this thread, I particularly regret that I never got to Daws Hall at Lamarsh or the Norfolk Wildlife Park. But I did like the Otter Trust's collection at Bungay in Suffolk (which was also set up by Phillip Wayre). It had a large lake for waterfowl and a series of beautifully landscaped enclosures along a stream for European, American, smooth and small-clawed otters (if I remember correctly), plus a spot-necked otter - the only one I have ever seen.
Alan
I knew Birdland better, particularly in the early 70's: it was tiny in area, and so the aviaries and houses were small and packed together. It reflected the personality of its creator, Len Hill, a local builder, so many of the aviaries and houses were built of Cotswold stone, which I assume was left over from building jobs in the area (where there are strict rules about building materials). There were tiny flowerbeds with little ceramic plaques with quirky comments. But the whole point was the birds; any Curator of Birds in the UK today would feel faint before getting half way down the list. I remember Lear's macaw (2 females unfortunately), swift parakeet, Salvadori's lory, black-capped lory, black lory, Wilson's & red birds of paradise, mountain witch dove, Emperor shag with the King penguins and more hummingbirds than you could shake a stick at, some commoner species of parrots plus quite a few more that I have forgotten.
I only visited Flamingo Gardens once, but I have some special memories - a rosy flamingo nesting so close to the fence that when she stood up I could look down on her egg, a Siberian white crane in a very large mixed aviary (one of a series), a pair of kelp geese, great bustards and white-tailed eagles. I also remember that the birds of prey must have been fed just before I saw them because each of the aviaries had a large section of deer carcase inside.
I also enjoyed visiting Belle Vue, Kilverstone and Rode. I didn't visit most of the other places mentioned in this thread, I particularly regret that I never got to Daws Hall at Lamarsh or the Norfolk Wildlife Park. But I did like the Otter Trust's collection at Bungay in Suffolk (which was also set up by Phillip Wayre). It had a large lake for waterfowl and a series of beautifully landscaped enclosures along a stream for European, American, smooth and small-clawed otters (if I remember correctly), plus a spot-necked otter - the only one I have ever seen.
Alan
I love that expression 'more than you can shake a stick at'- seems particularly relevant for Zoochatters when faced with a multitude of some species or rather.
I do remember the original Birdland too, particularly the pairs of free-flying Macaws with their barrel homes in the trees into which each pair was shut at night(they had little sliding wire doors with latches that were shut with the aid of a long pole). This and Rode Bird Garden were the main birdgardens I visited in those days.Was Dawes Hall open to the public at one stage? I did visit there once but only to collect animals and it was 'private' at that time.
I also remember visiting Suffolk with my other half many years ago about the time The Otter Trust was shortly to open its centre at Bungay. We were driving around the countryside and stopped at a little 'two pump' petrol station in the middle of nowhere and would you believe, the man using the other pump was Philip Wayre, filling up a little Renault car just like our own. What sort of coincidence was that? We asked him about the park but it was still only in the early stages of being built. I never managed a visit there.
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I agree with you; as I mentioned in an earlier post, Kilverstone is the closed zoo that I miss the most; there was such a great collection of rarely-seen South American species.
In addition to Lady Fisher wandering around with various monkeys, I recall seeing her walking around with a hand-reared olingo; sadly it’s a very long while since I last saw an olingo in a zoo.
Are you sure about the chimps though? I know that there were a few odd species that were not from Latin America, but I don’t think that there were ever any apes at Kilverstone.
I never heard of Chimpanzees at Kilverstone. Maybe confusion with Mole Hall, also in Suffolk, who did have some ?
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
Kilverstone was just over the border in Norfolk. For that matter, Mole Hall was in Essex, although I never felt inclined to boast about it as being one of my native county's finer points!
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I miss Glasgow Zoo. I know by the end it was certainly the right thing to close due to the problems with the management, but I loved the place as a child.
There was good things achieved at Glasgow in it's day. There's still things developed there used by other zoos, particularly in the big cats I believe.
It is a shame that it couldn't have been saved and modernised as it was a good space and was easy to get too so would have been accessible to people still.
There was good things achieved at Glasgow in it's day. There's still things developed there used by other zoos, particularly in the big cats I believe.
It is a shame that it couldn't have been saved and modernised as it was a good space and was easy to get too so would have been accessible to people still.
Kilverstone was just over the border in Norfolk. For that matter, Mole Hall was in Essex, although I never felt inclined to boast about it as being one of hy native county's finer points!
Getting my counties wrong here- I should know better as Kilverstone was very near Thetford but the border is close by. I went to Mole Hall once a very long time ago too- from memory I was not impressed.