Windsor Safari Park

Location map
Berkshire
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long=-0.65114
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caption="Windsor Safari Park shown within Berkshire"
(gbmapping|SU938747)

Windsor Safari Park was a popular family attraction built on St. Leonards Hill on the outskirts of the English town of Windsor in Berkshire; it has since been converted into the site of Legoland Windsor. Billed as "The African Adventure", the park included drive-through animal enclosures, aviaries, a dolphinarium and minor theme park rides.

The park's drive-through enclosures featured lions, tigers, bears, cheetahs and baboons. In addition, the park had a Serengeti zone (featuring camels, llamas, giraffes, zebras and buffalo), an elephant enclosure, a hippo lake, chimpanzees, birds of prey, parrots and butterflies.

History

The park was founded in 1969 by Billy Smart's Circus. Built in the former grounds of Dodge Mansion (which still stands) to house the circus animals, the park became a popular drive-through zoo.

It grew significantly through the 1970s and '80s while the ownership changed several times. During this period the number and range of animals in the park greatly increased, incorporating many new, non-circus animals.

The park was bought by Themes International (also owner of The American Adventure Theme Park in Derbyshire) in the 1980s, who had the intention of building up the theme-park side of the business; many African-themed rides were installed (such as the "African Queen Riverboat Ride") in addition to themed eateries and games.

One of Windsor Safari Park's key attractions was Seaworld, a dolphinarium complex housing dolphins, a killer whale, penguins and sea lions. The dolphins, sea lions and killer whale performed in acrobatic shows several times a day.

Windsor Safari Park was, however, proactive in dolphin research and conservation, employing a great many dolphin experts and academics. Research efforts included the development of a fishing net warning system for dolphins and the Dolphin Research Project aimed to raise funds for other research on sonar communication and behaviour.

Receivership

In the early 1990s Themes International suffered serious financial problems, specifically for Windsor Safari Park; traditional sources of funding had ceased and visitor numbers proved somewhat cool. The situation was exacerbated by the building of an expensive new Egyptian-themed entrance courtyard and similarly-themed market streets.

The park entered receivership in January 1992 and closed shortly afterwards, the expensive new developments left largely unused.The park was purchased soon afterwards by the Lego Group, who intended to create a Legoland theme park similar to the existing Legoland in Billund, Denmark. The resulting Legoland Windsor opened in 1996.

The dolphins were relocated to Harderwijk Marine Park in the Netherlands.

The only attraction that remains from the Safari Park days (aside from the mansion) is the funicular railway, now known as the Hill Train, that links The Beginning area of the park with Wild Woods.

The Safari Park on film

* A 22min video "Go Wild at Windsor", narrated by Terry Nutkins and Chris Packham, was released in 1988. It featured footage of many of the animals, the dolphin show, the playpark, and the toboggan runcite web
last =Nutkins
first =Terry
authorlink =Terry Nutkins
coauthors =Chris Packham
title =Go Wild at Windsor
work = (inc. numerous stills from video)
publisher =Windsor Safari Park
date =1988
url =http://www.windsorsafaripark.org.uk/goWild1.html
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-06-16 ]

* The zoo footage (including the "crazy baboons" scene) in the motion picture "The Omen" (1976 version) was filmed at Windsor Safari Park.

* The film "Mutiny on the Buses" (1972) featured the characters Stan and Blakey driving a London bus through the lion enclosure as part of a trial run for a special new bus route.

* The action scenes in the film "The Jigsaw Man" (1983) with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier were filmed in Windsor Safari Park.

Animal experiments

Documents were taken from Roebuck farm, Hertfordshire in 1986 by the Central Animal Liberation League (CALL) that allegedly showed that primates were supplied by the park for use in experiments.

References

Further reading

* "The Animals Came Out Two by Two: Final Days of Windsor Safari Park", David Taylor, 1988, Robson Books ltd, 224 pages, ISBN 086051868X.

External links

* [http://www.windsorsafaripark.org.uk/id21.html Brief history of the Safari Park] , including a detailed list of the animals and where they were rehomed after the Park closed.
* [http://www.windsorsafaripark.org.uk/ WindsorSafariPark.org.uk fansite]