Newquay Zoo Timeline 1969 –

Half a page is all Newquay’s ‘first’ zoo gets in founder Charles Trevisick’s autobiography My Home is a Zoo.

This Timeline content used to be on our Wikipedia article but is now illustrated and updated with fresh research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newquay_Zoo

The ‘first’ Newquay Zoo?

Pre 1969  – a small petting zoo is established by Charles Trevisick and help from Ken Smith in the Rose Gardens area of Trenance Gardens and boating lake.

This closed in 1968/9 as the more permanent site  was built on former dairy farmland in the Trenance Gardens / valley area

–

https://newquayzoohistory.wordpress.com/2016/05/24/picturing-the-building-of-newquay-zoo-1969-then-and-now/

(top) Early animals (Hyacinthine Macaw?, monkey, rabbit) at possibly the first petting zoo or very early Newquay Zoo from a mid to late 1960s guidebook

Newquay Zoological Gardens 1969

Whit Monday 26 May 1969 – Newquay Zoo opens to the Public, two days late. It is opened and operated by Newquay Urban District Council later (after 1974/5) to become Restormel Borough Council.

The opening day is covered in this blogpost:

https://newquayzoohistory.wordpress.com/2016/04/

Peter Lowe was the first Curator, formerly at Chester Zoo, and designed the overall plan of the site. He had the helpful advice of his former boss George Mottershead, letters between them have survived in the Chester Zoo archive, copies now placed in our  archives:

https://wordpress.com/post/worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/10699

Record cards have survived from the first 6 years giving an idea of some of the species involved.

1969 Newquay Zoo Map

https://newquayzoohistory.wordpress.com/2016/05/24/an-early-1969-newquay-zoo-map/

As you can see in  this map, Newquay Zoo is much smaller here. The whole top section and anything over the boundary of the stream running through the zoo was not part of the zoo at this time.

1970/1 – Lion house added (this is still standing in 2016 housing Fossa)

Norman Marshall became Curator / Manager in the mid 1970s when Peter Lowe moved on.

https://newquayzoohistory.wordpress.com/2016/08/18/ticket-to-newquay-zoo/

By 1983 Newquay Zoo had expanded over the stream edge with the Maze, tarzan Trail and Waterfall and Water garden areas.

1983/5 guidebook map

In the 1983/ 85 some areas noted in the guidebook are still waiting to be developed such  as the Japanese Water Garden.

More details are referred to about development and rebuilding in the 1988/9 Children’s guidebook to the Zoo.

The remote control model boats (!) in the old Sea lion pool would soon give way to Penguins in 1988.

1988/9 guidebook information

This 1988/89 Map and Guide gives further clues to devel;opments or redevelopments, especailly devloping the area over the stream where the maze and Oriental agrden now are and in the top paddocks area. Numbers refer to the 1988/89 Guidebook Map.

1982/ 83 – Dragon Maze (Map no 21) designed by mazemaker Adrian Fisher   http://mazemaker.com/

1983 – 1988 – Oriental Garden (Japnaese Water Garden)  developed, still in use 2016/17 and now home to Asian birds, Asian Otters and Owston’s Civets

1983 – 1988 – Activity play park area added at top part of Zoo (opposite camel paddocks.). Still in use 2016

1983 – 1988 – Tarzan Trail and big slide added (still in use 2016)

1983-88 – Monkey Walk redevloped into three enclosures (as it still is 2016/17) from its original 1969 design.

1987 – Tropical House rebuilt with second storey, aquarium and education centre.

https://newquayzoohistory.wordpress.com/2016/06/29/under-the-sea-at-newquay-zoo/

1988 – Penguin Pool rebuilt (16) where Sea Lions once lived. Capybaras briefly  move into the former Penguin Pool area, before moving to the main lake c. 1993/4.

1988 – The children’s zoo redeveloped marked as Pets Corner (4) on the 1988/89 map.

1989 – Walkthrough Rabbit warren established, now Toad hall and the Red Panada enclosure.

The Zoo was briefly renamed in its later Council years ‘Newquay Animal World’ for a number of years (late 1980s to c. 1994/5) to match the new swimming pool / leisure facilities of WaterWorld next door.

1989 – Redevelopment of the Lion Enclosure (10 – Donkey Paddock ) opposite the 1970/1 original.

1996 Guidebook map

On the 1996 Map (top left at 18) a new Puma enclosure was being planned to replace the camel paddock, opening c. 1998 They were temporarily housed in the Old Lion House (13).

Wildlife at Night  has by 1996 replaced the coati house on the 1988/89 map.

A Pheasant enclosure (27) had been built in the Oriental Garden c. 1994/5

Newquay Zoo 1996 Guidebook editorial

Female Black Lemur, one of the rare Madagascan species and breeding programmes  based at the zoo c. 1996

In 1996 there was no second cafe at Tippy’s (named after our first tapir) at  Map No. 22, in 1996 it was still a Mongoose enclosure. There were no top toilets or baby changing facilities. These were developed over the next 2 to 3 years.

Pumas from the closed Haigh Mini Zoo in Wigan arrived C. 1993 and went into the old lion house until a new enclosure was built C. 1998/9 after extensive fundraising, the nclosure being opened by Jenny Agutter.

Around 1998/9 purpose built Portakabin classrooms were erected next to the new Puma House to run the Education Service, school workshops formerly being offered in the humid and steamy Tropical House!

Enter a caption

Cornwall College Newquay courses at FE and HE level  began to be offered from September 2000 onwards on former golf driving range on separately leased  land adjacent / opposite  the top part of the zoo. https://www.cornwall.ac.uk/campus/cornwall-college-newquay

Summer 2003 Guidebook as Newquay Zoo becomes part of the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Mike Thomas’ editorial in the 2002/3 Guidebook, his name covered by a sticker from August 2003-4 as Newquay Zoo becomes part of the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust.

2001 – Newquay Zoo closes its doors for 3 to 4 weeks to visitors c.  February / March during the UK wide Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak.

Foassa – New arrivals in 2003 for the updated guidebook.

2003 – Fossa arrive to take up residence in the Old Lion and Puma House.

August / September 2003 – Mike Thomas retires and Newquay Zoo becomes part of a scientific and educational wildlife charity, the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust http://www.wwct.org.uk/  with sister zoos at Paignton and Living Coasts.

We shall add more to this section 2003 – 2016 onwards over time.

2009 – As part of our 40th birthday year celebrations, opening of the Savannah area on the field next door and a new Asian / Phillipine deer, warty pig and fishing cat area redeveloping  the 1994/5 African Plains mixed enclosure.

December 2016 – Gems of the Jungle walk-through aviary opens on site of the original leopard house (see 9 on the 1969 map).

Update 2019-2022: May 26th 2019 Newquay Zoo celebrates its 50th birthday including a history timeline

https://newquayzoohistory.wordpress.com/2022/03/12/newquay-zoo-nz50-timeline-panels-2019/

The traditional Director post for Newquay Zoo (last held by Stewart Muir 2003/4 to 2017) lapsed or changed into five Directors running  different operational areas (retail, living collections, etc) across all the Wild Planet Trust sites.

During 2019, the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust which runs our zoos and nature reserves in Cornwall and Devon  changed its name to Wild Planet Trust. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Planet_Trust

In 2020 and 2021 Newquay Zoo closed to visitors or extended  periods during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

The Sulawesi Macaque enclosure (former bear pit) closed (December 2020?) and the Dragon Maze remains closed (2020-22).

Its  fellow Wild Planet Trust site Living Coasts closed permanently in summer 2020.

This timeline is occasionally updated by this occasional blog  using our archive materials.

New post Covid master planning is  underway in 2022 to look at the redevelopment of enclosures and site areas over the next ten years.

Other Sources:

A brief summary of Newquay Zoo’s recent history is given here at our website.

• from 1993 onwards under private ownership by Mike Thomas and Roger Martin
• from 2003 as  a charity by the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust :

http://www.newquayzoo.org.uk/about-us/our-history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newquay_Zoo

An extensive and very personal view of Newquay Zoo from 1993 to 2003 is given in former Director Mike Thomas’ well illustrated book Strange Things Happened On My Way To The Zoo (Alison Hodge, 2010) available from bookshops or online sellers.

Posted by Mark Norris on the Newquay Zoo History WordPress blog, December 2016 . Updated March 2022