United Kingdom Gloucestershire Zoological , Botanical and Horticultural Society , Park Estate, Cheltenham , Glouces

As a follow up really to yesterdays post about Cheltenham Zoological Gardens ... Cheltenham had 3 Persons / groups looking to open a Zoological Gardens in Cheltenham .... This particular gardens was being pushed through by a solicitor named Thomas Billings , who in 1831 purchased a sizeable piece of land ... by 1836 he was looking to place a Zoo on the land ... In order to do so he had to sell shares and formed a Joint Stock Company ... His plans were quite detailed but perhaps not as detailed as the Cheltenham Zoological Gardens (CZG) plans and whilst he had backers they were not as many or as influential as the CZG ... However it triumphed over the CZG and it was announced that the Gloucestershire Zoological Garden would lay their foundation stone in 1837 to coincide with Princess Victoria's birthday and the Zoo was to open 1 year later ... However due to delays and slow progression the date was postponed until 28 June 1838 ... Many of the proposed buildings and enclosures were not ready and the Zoo failed to get enough subscribers ... The public were not forthcoming as the Zoo was quite bare and shambolic albeit the Gardens themselves were exceptional ..

I can find no details of what animals were kept ...There was one AGM for the shareholders in 1839 from what I can find ..Some reports state that the Zoo closed in 1841 but I rather suspect from what I read it closed in 1839 ... Samuel Whitfield Daukes (an architect) bought the Gardens and renamed them "The Park Gardens" and by 1844 the few animals that were on the site were sold to Mr Hale Jessop (the other Zoological gardens person who will be the topic of the next post ) .... The Gloucestershire Zoological company went into liquidation in 1840/ 41

The only thing I can say for certain was that there was a Small Ornithological Museum within the Entrance building ... Mr Daukes ran the Park as a Pleasure Gardens until 1844 when the site was put up for sale ...
Had both the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Zoological "Societies" put their resources and brains together they may have made a success of having a Zoo in Cheltenham as it is neither of them got their dreams or aspirations fulfilled..

The Park is now owned and managed by the University of Gloucestershire in partnership with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
1st image is the plan for the Zoological Garden (much of which never happened) 2nd image is the entrance