Old zoos

willtheman45

willtheman45

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Hi all,

I have't posted on zoochat for a while but was wondering if anyone could give me information on two former zoos.

Skegness Zoo-My Nan remembers visisting here -probably duering the 60s. She remembers it being poor quality with a particular scruffy bear in a tiny cage being her main memory. Could anyone give me information about this place-what it was really like and when it closed etc.

Also I noticed I have a leaflet from approximately 2003 for Argyll Wildlife park. I know this has now closed but was just wondering if anyone had viisted and what it was like.

Many thanks in advance.
 
willtheman45 said:
Skegness Zoo-My Nan remembers visisting here -probably duering the 60s. She remembers it being poor quality with a particular scruffy bear in a tiny cage being her main memory. Could anyone give me information about this place-what it was really like and when it closed etc.A
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The zoo I know of in Skegness in the 1960s is the same place as today. Geoffrey Schomberg's "The Penguin Guide to British Zoos" (1970) says Skegness Natureland opened on 1st July 1965 and describes it as "a small collection of high quality specializing in marine animals". It was, of course, owned by the well-known George Cansdale who had been Superintendent at Regent's Park (I read once he had left under some sort of cloud).

Something is nagging at me saying Skegness possibly had a previous collection, but I may be imagining it. I have never visited Skegness so I can't comment on Natureland.

I've just checked the Bartlett Society website and Skegness Zoo operated from circa 1929 to circa 1939, so it had to be Natureland in the 1960s.
 
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Thanks for your infor but I'm sure it wasn't Natureland although with your information I'm beginning to wonder if we've mixed up Skegness with Scarborough possibly? Maybe somebody could help...
 
Worked at Argyll Wildlife Park when it started and for a few years, jumping upto Edinburgh as the park gave me a springboard. Argyll was actually okay, 60 or so acres, woods and walks, numerous waterfowl and birds of prey, deer and some other exotics. On a few occassions one of the wallabies escaped as the main road was just yards away, it did claim to have the first white or albino wallaby in the UK, not sure on that but I still have the pictures from those days. Because I knew Malcom and his previous park and where he got his waterfowl and pheasants from, being a place where I got my traineeship, it was a small family run business which did get lots of tourists and buses. Malcom did have a passion for his highland cattle and still does. It did hit the press a few times, one because the boar escaped and one had to be shot. The rest is after when Malcom sold the park, it then went down hill so fast that after numerous failed attempts by the local vets, council, and SSPCA, it was deemed not complying with the ZLA and other welfare acts. It closed under a cloud of deep depression...but the park footprint can still be found, all be it that its now used as a local outdoor pursuits area!
 
I can't find it at the moment...but from what I recall it's actually a white leaflet with los of pictures of ducks/poultry as well as a map.
 
Hasn't Whipsnade had albino Wallabies for Donkey's years? Flamingo Land got its first in the late 1990s when it shouldn't have done (allegedly) but I'll not go into that.

Scarborough Zoo opened on 15th June 1969 so just made it into that decade. Clinton Keeling's "Where the Macaw Preened" mentions Asiatic/Himalayan Black Bear cubs at its opening. It was also far from the best zoo in the country, so it could well fit the bill.

Moving on in years, a Bear from the zoo was reported to have escaped on the way to or from a Hull City football match in the early 1980s - the owner of the zoo was also the chairman of Hull City, having previously been chairman of Scarborough F.C. (just thought I'd mention that story).
 
Parrotsandrew said:
Hasn't Whipsnade had albino Wallabies for Donkey's years?
Click to expand...

Yes; a pair of white Bennett’s wallabies (the female also with a young in her pouch) arrived at Whipsnade Zoo in 1963; these were part of a collection of Australian mammals and birds presented to the ZSL to mark the Queen’s visit to Australia that year.

The ZSL Annual Report for 1963 provides a long list of the animals received as part of this collection.

However, according to the ZSL Inventory there was only one white wallaby at Whipsnade as at 1st January 2011.
 
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