Seaburn Zoo / Ocean Park Documentary. Please Read.

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oioirob said:
Hello there people.

I am currently making a short documentary on the zoo that was once in Seaburn also known as Ocean Park at one point. I am aware of the previous thread relating to this but my reason for posting is to appeal for help.

Does anyone have any information or stories they would like to share?
I am aware of Janets story in relation to the tiger and also the lions escaping although there is not much information available on the lions escaping so any help with that would be great.

Does anyone have any photos perhaps from personal albums or ones that are not currently online or know anyone who may?
I have found the ones from Facebook and certain ones from Google as well.

Does anyone have any experiences they would be happy to discuss in an interview on camera?
Or any relatives they might know who would have any information or photos.

It has also been brought to my attention that when the zoo was closed someone who had posted on a thread in a forum on this site claimed there father was the one who had to come and shoot the lions?
Does anyone have any more information on this? Perhaps the thread or may know the person or remember the post?

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all for taking the time to read this.
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I've got absolutely nothing to offer you, sorry. BUT...! I'd love to see your documentary!!!
 


JAZZMANB said:
Took my final exams in 79 in the TA because of some strike at monky house and you could hear the Sea lions and stuff ,seem to remember it was closed but there was still animals in there
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Maybe they remained there till they found new homes, I'm not sure when it closed, the only date I can find online is a vague '1978' which was when the tiger attack happened and it was supposedly closed shortly after.

I know some of the animals were definitely destroyed, there was a thread on here ages ago and someone posted that it was their Dad who had been given the job of shooting them. I'm fucked if I can remember who it was though, nor can I find the thread, as myself and no doubt the op would love to speak to them. It's mental thinking that there were all these animals, but at the time they were so common in England at the time you literally couldn't give the fuckers away.

So @lionkillerdad if you're reading this, hoy me a pm over please.

There was also an incident when a lorry carrying lions crashed near Hylton Castle, there was a report online saying that although the lorry was damaged none of the lions tried to escape, and police marksmen had been called till the whole thing was sorted out. But again, there is nowt online - I cant even find the report I'm referring to - and you think there would be something, it wasn't like it was an everyday event.
 
Sneech said:
Maybe they remained there till they found new homes, I'm not sure when it closed, the only date I can find online is a vague '1978' which was when the tiger attack happened and it was supposedly closed shortly after.

I know some of the animals were definitely destroyed, there was a thread on here ages ago and someone posted that it was their Dad who had been given the job of shooting them. I'm fucked if I can remember who it was though, nor can I find the thread, as myself and no doubt the op would love to speak to them. It's mental thinking that there were all these animals, but at the time they were so common in England at the time you literally couldn't give the fuckers away.

So @lionkillerdad if you're reading this, hoy me a pm over please.

There was also an incident when a lorry carrying lions crashed near Hylton Castle, there was a report online saying that although the lorry was damaged none of the lions tried to escape, and police marksmen had been called till the whole thing was sorted out. But again, there is nowt online - I cant even find the report I'm referring to - and you think there would be something, it wasn't like it was an everyday event.
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These stories must be in the Echo archives? I know they used to be kept in the museum/library because I researched a story quite a few years ago and got access to them.
 
I've got some old articles from the archive about the tiger attack and how the zoo/ocean park was in a great deal of debt. There was also an accident on the Big Dipper which resulted in the death of a 15 year old boy I have the date I just haven't got around for searching for the article yet. It's tough to find stuff without dates as an echo comes out everyday and there's over 30 pages in each echo. I will be sure to keep this updated when I finish for everyone to see.
 
oioirob said:
I've got some old articles from the archive about the tiger attack and how the zoo/ocean park was in a great deal of debt. There was also an accident on the Big Dipper which resulted in the death of a 15 year old boy I have the date I just haven't got around for searching for the article yet. It's tough to find stuff without dates as an echo comes out everyday and there's over 30 pages in each echo. I will be sure to keep this updated when I finish for everyone to see.
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I remember as a kid the big wooden Big Dipper being there but not open, and I can recall the swan shaped boats that followed what was basically a water filled track (manky with litter!) but it was dying a death around the mid seventies which is about as far as my memory goes back, will ask me da if he can remember owt or has any snaps of it, don't hold your breath though!
 
I can remember the big dipper. I also remember going to the new adventure playground that had the giant hamster wheel type things.....that must have been mid 70s....cannot remember any zoo being there
 
I vaguely remember the zoo, it stunk! As soon as I started reading this thread I thought of the smell.
I remember those swan boat things aswell, were they part of the zoo?
 
Nero the dog said:
It's not just Seaburn Zoo that's been forgotten about. Anyone under about 35 won't know anything about Lambton Lion park either.
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Aye was just about to mention this anarl.

I have vague recollections of both but never went to either. Also vaguely remember a lion/tiger on the loose - was that from Seaburn or LLP?

I did go to the Putt-Putt which was in the same vicinity, just across from where the chip shop hatches are currently. You would get a free badge 'I play putt-putt', and every few putt putt tickets would be a free go in the miniature railway that went out over the boating lake. This would have been the very early seventies. Around 1980 when the Mods used to gather around Seaburn - we knew a few lads from Monkeyhouse School and would go over and hang around Notarianni's or the arcade, and the boating lake was still there in a sad state of desolation and disrepair, with paint peeling off the big plastic walruses and polar bears and no water in the lake.
 
Nero the dog said:
It's not just Seaburn Zoo that's been forgotten about. Anyone under about 35 won't know anything about Lambton Lion park either.
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38 and memory is very vague. Consisting of monkeys on top of our car
 
Shooting the lions
breaking in and killing a penguin
Encouraging a chimp to smoke
Putting a baboon in a tiny cage

Lots to be proud of Third World or what?
 
oioirob said:
I've got some old articles from the archive about the tiger attack and how the zoo/ocean park was in a great deal of debt. There was also an accident on the Big Dipper which resulted in the death of a 15 year old boy I have the date I just haven't got around for searching for the article yet. It's tough to find stuff without dates as an echo comes out everyday and there's over 30 pages in each echo. I will be sure to keep this updated when I finish for everyone to see.
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My dad was one of the first people to rush into the middle of the big dipper when it crashed as he had 4 stalls at the fair and the dipper went over the top of them. He didn't speak about it for years because the boy who died had half his head torn off and my old man was traumatised by it.

I vaguely remember the zoo as I spent a lot of time down there in the 70s but, bizarrely, I can't remember any details specifically.
 
Sneech said:
Maybe they remained there till they found new homes, I'm not sure when it closed, the only date I can find online is a vague '1978' which was when the tiger attack happened and it was supposedly closed shortly after.

I know some of the animals were definitely destroyed, there was a thread on here ages ago and someone posted that it was their Dad who had been given the job of shooting them. I'm fucked if I can remember who it was though, nor can I find the thread, as myself and no doubt the op would love to speak to them. It's mental thinking that there were all these animals, but at the time they were so common in England at the time you literally couldn't give the fuckers away.

So @lionkillerdad if you're reading this, hoy me a pm over please.

There was also an incident when a lorry carrying lions crashed near Hylton Castle, there was a report online saying that although the lorry was damaged none of the lions tried to escape, and police marksmen had been called till the whole thing was sorted out. But again, there is nowt online - I cant even find the report I'm referring to - and you think there would be something, it wasn't like it was an everyday event.
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Not quite Twin towers but there's a cover it going on ....

fatha said:
Shooting the lions
breaking in and killing a penguin
Encouraging a chimp to smoke
Putting a baboon in a tiny cage

Lots to be proud of Third World or what?
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These things were happening in the local bars that's where the idea came from ..
 
How bizarre was the 70's ...at the top of Windermere Crescent at the junction with Chester Rd in Pensher there was a general store/shop we used to call "The Monkey Shop" It had a monkey in a cage outside the shop. :eek:
 
i remember pitch and putt being there - was that art of the ocean park? - id completely and utterly forgotten about it

Royston Vasey said:
How bizarre was the 70's ...at the top of Windermere Crescent at the junction with Chester Rd in Pensher there was a general store/shop we used to call "The Monkey Shop" It had a monkey in a cage outside the shop. :eek:
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I know its all so PC these days :)

I knew the owner and at night they used to let it loose to patrol the building - it nearly tore the arm off a gypo once! it took three buckets of water to get it off her she was only selling pegs and all
 
Sneech said:
I went to both the dolphin park and zoo, but can only just vaguely remember the zoo and nothing about the dolphin park as I was only very young. I remember my dad showing me that you could climb on the cemetary wall and see in so I did that a canny bit. The zoo itself wasnt very big and I dont think it was very good compared to the better attraction of Lambton Lion Park that was open at the time.

But you would think that there would be loads of old photos, even video, online from this, but there's next to nowt. f***ing hell man a lion was roaming free round Seaburn, imagine the stir that would cause now, but theres barely a mention of it anywhere.
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I'd always assumed that was a myth
 
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