Of course - and I have a few more that might be of interest. Having lived my first six years in Felpham, I have more than a soft spot for the Hotham Park Zoo!
With so little information and so much of it contradictory or hearsay, and with so few pictures easily available, writing an accurate and comprehensive book on Hotham Park I would see as a real challenge. To further limit it to the zoo makes it doubly difficult. My own attempt at this history via the flickr photo-collection I have cobbled together is largely postcards. There msut be thousands of pictures, only whilst every tourist back in the day took pictures, these sit in family albums never to be seen again. Indeed, I have very few of these 'family snaps'. https://www.flickr.com/photos/40770745@N06/sets/72157624198870403 What I have you can have but with most of mine from commercial sources, copyright is always the issue.
Indeed. There are many things I believe to be accurate but did not have sufficient evidence to put in print, so I wrote with the very generous help of Gordon Brown, former keeper and using newspaper articles. There is nothing of substance at the County Records Office and almost nothing at all at the local Museum. People's recollections are varied and contradictory and, of course, spanning many years may be about different times. If you scratch about for long enough you will read online about tiger cubs (there were none) lion escapes (bears) and other mis-recollections. Other than now being able to confirm that the trapeeze artist was Baba Fossett, sister of Julie Wild and partner of Mike Denning, everything written in the book is accurate and backed up with appropriate evidence. I have further information about the Monty Python visit and the background of some of the animals that came from the circus plus a few other interesting fragments. Most of the photos I have would add no real information, or are too blurred to use but are interesting. Any that anyone reading this would be willing to let me use in the future, either for talks or a second edition of the book would be very gratefully received. As many of the people who have been involved in the zoo are still alive and influential, it is important to respect their privacy and given that the venture ultimately failed, it is important to remain sensitive to that situation. Having said that, by supporting what I put in print appropriately, I do believe I was able to write in a balanced and responsible way. The book has raised a bit of money for charity and I am working on another book at the moment but I do quite like the idea of publishing an extended second edition to be released in 2020 to commemorate the opening, so as mentioned, please share any of your own images with me if you would like them to be used; full photo credits would, of course be given.
I completely see the problems with any of it. And in my attempts... even less can I reliably date! Dear me, I'm afraid most of my stuff may as well be deemed complete fiction. The precursor to the majority of it is " I think..." & "It looks like..." Postcards are often still selling 5-6 years after the picture was taken, (why would the publisher stop selling a winner?) so the postmark is not really an indicator, and more often than not cards are postally unused anyway. Which is why I indicate the postmarked date. If we could see into the family albums of all those the 1950s/60s/70s holiday-makers msot questions here would be answered. Ho-hum.
Did you manage to find any other photos that might be good for a book update? I'm planning to work on it over the summer.
I'll be working on the second edition of the book next month. Do you have any other pictures I could include?
Hi all, funny to come across this site...... have just been reminiscing about past !!! I lived and worked at what was then Rainbow's End in the early 80's as a young teenager. It holds a lot of memories for myself, it was a shame how our time ended there !!!
The following comes from Anthony Smith's 'Animals on View', Granada Publishing (1979): Open March-November, 10.00-dusk December-February weekends: 10.00-16.00 5 acres Other: Aquarium. Playground, trains etc in park adjacent to zoo. Set in a shady corner of the park, the zoo offers no opportunity to relax on the seats, for the children will need you to help with identification as any notices are 5-6 feet from the ground. The exhibits (except the aquarium) are more accessible, through bars and netting.There is a small tropical bird aviary and outdoor cages contain toucans, parrots, cockatoos,mynahs and cranes, with a pool for penguins and a castle for the pelican. Other animals have Wendy-type houses, where they can sleep invisibly. There are wallabies, capuchins, llamas, deer, raccoons,coatis and porcupines, as well as more familiar bantams, rabbits, hamsters, ducks, chickens, sheep, tortoises and ponies.
Thanks for that. It doesn't particularly add anything but I didn't know about this reference, so I can add it to the suggested reading. It doesn't sound as though he liked it much!
I still only have a photo of one of the zebras before it came to Bognor, I find it hard to believe there were zebra here in the 1960s and 1970s-80s and no-one has photos; I have more than I can use of chimps, puma and bears but still no zebra, seals, camel...
Wasn’t there a picture of a zebra in the relevant Keeling book? I can’t get to my various Where the Something Somethinged volumes right now, but I’m pretty sure a zebra featured in the illustrations for the Bognor chapter.....
Bognor Regis was included in Clinton Keeling's book "Where the Elephant Walked". There is no zebra illustration in my copy but three others: Brown bear, Puma with cub and the mixed exhibit of Red deer and Barbary sheep. However, having recently been involved with the start of re-publishing the "Where the" books, I have learnt that, as many of these books were copied to order, some had photographs that others did not so there MAY have been a zebra in your edition. I would be interested to know if you locate your book and find different illustrations.
Whilst possible, I think it is unlikely. Gordon Brown supplied the photographs and very kindly lent me the originals, plus a few others for use in my book. If the Bartlett Society gets to the relevant book for republishing, I can provide quite good quality scans of the original photographs and potentially some other unpublished ones, so just ask. In terms of the zebra, I have found this in an archive film from 1959. There is also a white llama in the film. It would, of course, be fascinating to see any other images that were included if that was the case.
I have quite a few here, photos are in the book; what is on it? I am still trying to find the llama one.
