This establishment was opened in 1968 on the Thorp Arch Estate which was originally agricultural land upon which was once home to a Royal Ordnance Factory .... The Zoo itself was run by Nick Nyoka ( real name Adrian Darley ) ... presumably at the same time as he was in charge of Knaresborough Zoo ... very little has been written about this Zoo but if Mr Nyoka was running it one would presume that there were Big Cats and Bears ... the only reports I can see are that there were Puma , Polar Bear , Donkeys and Otters .... Other reports state that the Zoo was eventually closed due to several animal escapes one of which was a Puma that had to be shot dead as it was in a shopping High Street ... A further report states that a fire at the Zoo caused the close down .... Around the Zoo from the Early 1960's and especially around 1967 the Area became an industrial Estate and Shopping Centre and it still is today The Zoo was closed down in 1971 The actual site of the Zoo is possibly the playground area ... Another Zoo airbrushed from History books The photos are from Thorp Arch Estate prior to Zoo and Industrial Estate / Shopping Centre being built
And me. Nyoka certainly got around. I saw him @ Colchester Zoo with an enormous Lion in the early 60s.
I saw Nyoka with an enormous lion "Simba" (presumably the same one) at Sandown Zoo, Isle of Wight, in 1969.
Nyoka at Colchester (?) from the East Anglian Film Archive East Anglian Film Archive: Look East: Jungle Jim: Nyoka, 1970
Lovely to see this old footage of Colchester Zoo. The cheetah looks old and fat, and may be Kinna, who was one of the first animals when the zoo opened. Apparently she was lead trained and well socialised to people.
Some interesting posts from zoowhosewho,but it isnt correct to say that some zoos have been "airbrushed from the history books" as most/many ,including Thorp Arch,were covered by Clinton Keeling in his "Where the..." series of zoo history books -which are now all-but-impossible to obtain i dare say. I also once did an item for "Der Zoologische Garten" on "unknown" British zoos of the 1830s/40s.
Clin Keeling's Where the Lion Trod has been republished by the Bartlett Society and work is progressing on the republishing of Clin's Where the Crane Danced. The intention is for the Bartlett Society to republish all the books in Clin's Where the...series.
