Your Norfolk Wildlife Park Memories

Preserving the memory of Great Witchingham’s popular Norfolk Wildlife Park.

Several years ago, we wrote about our memories of Philip Wayre’s Norfolk Wildlife Park (NWP), a popular animal attraction which ran from 1963 through to its closure (as Animal Ark) in 2011. But now we’re able to bring some more memories to help those who remember the park to reminisce and to keep the memory of this fondly thought of attraction alive.

NorfolkPlaces reader Julian Berkeley has kindly supplied us with some photos taken whilst working at Norfolk Wildlife Park, as well as providing a brief account of his time working at Norfolk Wildlife Park in the 1970s.

I did a teenager’s summer job at the Park in 1975, July-August 1975, travelling up by coach from my then home on the Isle of Wight. I have always been bonkers about otters, and Philip Wayre ran the Otter Trust from there in those days.

It was a hot summer, and creosoting the pheasant pens was a painful exercise, sprayed with creosote which then baked on – I changed colour! My red T-shirt was pink by the end of the summer!

On Day 1 I met Dale, another lad who’d wanted, like me, to do a summer job there. He’d even brought along his own honey buzzard!

My working days, once I’d cycled in, consisted of feeding a whole variety of animals, putting the birds of prey, like Batty the Battleur Eagle (pictured below) and several Eagle Owls, out on display. We did a lot of mowing of grassy areas, cleaning out pools, like the otter and seal pools, and mucking out the pens on a regular basis.

I particularly remember cleaning out the hen barns (at the back of the Park) with Dale; it was, of course, a filthy job (didn’t seem to have been done for ages!), and needless to say we found a quantity of ancient eggs, buried in the muck, which meant “egg wars” – we were dead smelly after that!

The picture (above) is of me (Julian) with a polecat I’d christened Misty. I’d been allowed to adopt Misty, as she’d had one of her front paws nibbled badly by a sibling when she was tiny, and so couldn’t go out on display in the Park. I was going to take her home with me – until the coach company refused to allow a smelly polecat on board! So, she had to stay behind.

Lots of stories but the best one was the brown bear: he was “behind the scenes”, instead of being on display; I used to go and chat to him each evening before cycling back to my digs. One evening, for reasons I’ll never understand, I felt a “connection” with him, as he was snuggled up to the bars of his cage, and I stretched out my finger to scratch his nose. Quick as a flash, he bit my finger, which I only just got out of his mouth before I lost it forever. Had it patched up in A&E (it was a bit of a mess!) and the Wayre’s were brilliant (though a bit nervous that I might take legal action – no way … my own stupid fault!)

A few years ago, another reader, Bryan Clements, shared some photos he took in 1968. We’ve moved these photos to this article to create a common space for reader’s shared memories.

We’re very appreciative of Julian and Bryan for sharing these photos and recollections with us. We would love to add to this collection of readers memories and photos of Norfolk Wildlife Park, so if you would like to share your recollections on NorfolkPlaces please do get in touch. Also, if you would like to share your treasured memories of other (past or present) attractions in Norfolk, we’d love to hear from you too.

Okay, before we sign off on this post, I just want to let you know we’ve got another new NWP post out now! Explore our Norfolk Wildlife Park Archive to view all articles about Norfolk Wildlife Park and its iterations.