Upton Local
History Group, Meeting held on 20th March 2003
The meeting of 38 members was opened, in
the absence of Phil Pearn, by Barbara Smith.
Barbara welcomed Brian Coles, a group member, who has been on the board
of the Governing body of the zoo since 1983.
Brian explained of his life long interest in the zoo both personally and
professionally, as Brian’s profession was that of Veterinary surgeon his
concerns for animal welfare are well founded.
Three members of staff from the Zoo accompanied
Brian to the meeting:- Rachel Aston from public relations; John Frost who works
with the giraffes and Steve O’Brien, estates manager, and special guest June
Williams (George Mottershead’s younger daughter).
Rachel, gave a presentation of the
history of the Zoo starting with how George Mottershead bought Oakfield in the
1930’s, from this purchase grew the dream of creating a zoo without bars. ‘Monkey Island’ is a prime example of this
with 26 chimps living there and just a moat separating them from the general
public. George Mottershead’s main task in the early days was to obtain as much
land as he could to create his dream.
Today the zoo itself covers an area of 110 acres but in total owns 400
acres. The gardens, started in 1953,
are also much admired by visitors but less well known perhaps, is the fact that
endangered plants are also part of the Zoo’s conservation culture. Indeed conservation is a major ideology in
the running of the Zoo and animals that are bred here are now living in other
zoos around the world. Ultimately of
course the intention is to release those animals back into the wild where their
numbers are so low that they are in danger of extinction.
As part of this duty of care to conservation, youngsters can join the Young Members Club and in doing so can spend time with keepers helping to feed and care for the animals. This gives them a good insight into animal welfare at the same time as enjoying themselves. A similar project for adults is the ‘Keeper for a Day’ scheme which enables anyone to shadow a keeper for a day and get some ‘hands on’ experience with the animals. These are just some of the schemes that help to raise money for other projects which are in the Zoo’s itinerary.
Following Rachel’s presentation, the
contributors of the evening volunteered to form a ‘panel’ for a question and
answer session, these consisted of Steve O’Brien, Margaret Williams, Nancy
Turton, Fred ?, Rachel Aston, John Frost and Brian Coles. There followed an interesting time of
questions/answers/reminiscences and joviality which could have gone on and on.
Before refreshments were served, Barbara
thanked all those who had contributed to the very interesting evening and presented
Brian with a thank you donation of £25.00 which will go into the Zoo library
fund. Following refreshments the meeting
ended.
Notices.
Names needed for Ed’s walk around Upton
Names needed for Guide of Chester walk
March meeting will be ‘What makes a village?’
Churches/Schools/Shops/Pubs. If anyone
knows of any long-standing members of these professions, please invite them
along or let a member of committee know and they will contact them.
There are more Township Packs available for purchase at £2.