In 1923, Herbert Whitley opened the gate to Paignton Zoo, formerly known as Torbay Zoological Gardens, for the first time. One-hundred years later, we’re celebrating our centenary, and we want you to join us!
Wild 100 – a special guest ale
A special birthday requires a special toast and Bays Brewery have certainly delivered with a brand new guest ale called Wild 100. This will be the tenth guest ale Bays Brewery have created for Paignton Zoo, and while drinkers raise their glass they will also be raising funds for the zoo with 10p donated per pint sold.
Welcoming school groups
Paignton Zoo has seen a lot of change over the past century, but our mission remains just as true today as it was nearly 100 years ago – to provide a place of learning where people can discover the wonders of nature. This year we will be welcoming 60,000 schools pupils for free as part of a campaign that we are extending to our sister zoo, Newquay Zoo.
Treasuring our past
Take a walk down memory lane with us as we look back at the history of Paignton Zoo. Join in our free Zoo Memories Trail and see how your favourite spots in the zoo have changed over the past 100 years.
Celebrating our community
In readiness for this celebration, we’ve been busy trawling through our archives and have uncovered many treasured moments of staff and visitors, but the thing that makes a zoo a zoo is the people that come and see us! With this in mind, we’ve set up a Facebook group for people to share their memories and photos that showcase our history. There are hundreds of posts on there already, but it’s not too late to join us!
Planning for our future
Reaching 100 years is a huge achievement, but we want to talk about what the next 10, 20, or 100 years might bring for us as a zoo. We’re currently working on our long-term master-plan and we look forward to sharing this with you soon.
Stay up-to-date
To stay in the know, be sure to follow us on social media for special news, events, throwbacks and a very exciting competition which we will be launching as soon as we hit 100,000 followers on Facebook. To help us reach our target be sure to invite your friends and family to join us, too.
Telling our story
Throughout the year, we’ll be publishing regular blogs to tell stories from the past 100 years of Paignton Zoo. We’ll keep this page up-to-date with the latest blogs, but you can also access them on the Blogs page of our website or via our Facebook page.
Original guidebook
Take a peak into the past with our original 1930s guidebook. We’ll be releasing more guidebooks throughout the year, so check back for further editions to come!
If you’ve enjoyed reading our guidebook, we ask that you consider donating towards our vital conservation work so that we can continue sharing our story.
