Birmingham Zoo any help please

[1963ADRIAN]

I would like to hear frompeople who can remember Birmingham Zoo before it closed and moved to Cannon Hill Park
I am also trying to find out information on another local zoo Dudley
I am looking for species of animals kept at both or zoo guides from both
any helkp would be very happily recieved as this would help with my project
many thanks for reading this thread

 

[dav19390]

I remember Dudley Zoo from when I was a boy in the 1950's. It was set on a wooded hillside at the edge of Dudley, the entrance being at the bottom of the hill by the railway, on the road out towards Tipton. At the top of the hill was Dudley Castle, also a feature of the zoo. The entrance porch had a wavy roof and you paid to get in through turnstiles.
I can remember that they had some lions and tigers and penguins. You could take a ride on the elephant and, I think a camel gave rides, too. I seem to remember being able to look down from the main pathway into a bear pit that contained brown bears.
There was a childrens' corner, with the usual furry and domesticated animals and a monkey enclosure that was really a large cage.
The zoo was not very big in area but seemed larger than it really was because it was set on a fairly steep hill. It would certainly have been challenging for the disabled. I think the animals' cages and enclosures were quite small by modern standards.
Looking back now, I feel sorry for the animals that spent their lives there although, as a boy, I was excited to go and see them.

 

[Phil]

Was there a Birmingham zoo before the one that opened at the rear of Cannon Hill Park? It was later turned into a Nature Centre when Zoo's became unpopular.

The only other Zoo I have heard of were the Zoological Gardens in Balsall Heath Rd Balsall Heath in the late 1800's. But they didn't last that long.

Phil

 

[1963ADRIAN]

There was another zoo before the Cannon Hill Park one this is probaly the Balsall Heath zoo
If anyone as any information on this zoo it would be brilliant as there are not many points of
information for this zoo any where.
Also the Birmingham Zoo/Nature Centre this could be the zoo I've been asked to try and get
information on again any information would be brilliant as very little on the rest of the internet
or if someone knows a website that has information that would be a great help
many thanks

 

[cornwall col]

Dudley Zoo in the 1960's was a thriving zoo although some of the enclosures left a lot to be desired. I do recall the chairlift ride as well as the whale that was at the zoo for a while before I recall intruders broke in and killed the creature with a metal pole if I remember correctly

 

[leslam]

I'm not quite sure of the location, but I can remember reading that one of my huband's family objected to a zoo near her house. I'll have to hunt out the old family scrapbook - loads of newspaper cuttings, so it's sure to be in there......

 

[Phil]

Adrian

I can tell you very little about the Zoological Gardens at Balsall Heath other than It was a very short lived zoo, it was opened in the grounds of the then Sherborne Hotel, by an ex boxer Morris Roberts in 1873 but it wasn't much of an attraction and it closed in 1876 and the animals were sold off. There is not a lot more that can be said as information about this place is in short supply. But it might be a starting point for your research.

Phil