The Elephant House, Cobtree Manor Park
Introduction
The photograph on this page of The Elephant House, Cobtree Manor Park by David Anstiss as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
The Elephant House, Cobtree Manor Park
Image: © David Anstiss Taken: 16 Dec 2008
Hugh Garrad Tyrwhitt-Drake began collecting wild animals in 1900, and these were first shown at Cobtree in 1912. In 1914, he opened 'Maidstone Zoological and Pleasure Gardens' in Tovil Court and 250 animals were moved from Cobtree to Tovil. The first World War, caused the closure of the Tovil Zoo, and 50 animals were sold to the Bronx Zoo, New York, USA. In 1934, some animals returned to Cobtree and the Zoo Park re-opened. The Zoo just stayed open in the 2nd World War but eventually the Zoo closed in 1959, as they could not maintain high services of care. The animals were then sent to other zoos. Most buildings were removed. The Elephant House remained and was restored by the Cobtree Charity Trust and is now a permanent reminder of the zoo and Sir Garrad Tyrwhitt-Drake's animal care.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.301372
Longitude
0.502944