Wild Cricket (The Wildlife Park, Cricket St. Thomas)

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Product:	The Wildlife Park, Cricket St. Thomas
Date:	20/12/05 (1236 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Animals in a Beautiful Setting

Disadvantages: Tranquillity Lost at Peak Times

The BBC sit-com To The Manor Born, starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, was filmed at Cricket St Thomas. The lovely valley setting of the grounds is where you will find the Wildlife Park, just south of the A30 between Chard and Crewkerne, in Somerset. It is well sign posted from the main road.

This historic Manor was owned for centuries by barons, then Mr Fry, the chocolate manufacturer bought it in 1897. It passed to two other families before becoming a hotel in 1999 and is now owned by Warners. I will tell you a little more about that later. A free brochure is available in the wildlife gift shop, along with many other leaflets of interest to visitors to the area.

There are three pricing periods for the park, Peak, Off-Peak and Winter. This reflects the fact that like other great attractions, it can become a victim of its own success at peak time. Here is a guide, but see website for more details.

Adults £5.25-£8.25, Children 3-14 years £3.95-£6.25, Senior Citizens £4.75-£7.25.

Under-twos and car park are free at all times. I do not see any discount for disabled. There are family and group discounts.

Opening times are every day except Christmas Day, 10.00am-6pm, or 4.30pm in winter.

We have holidayed in this area often, and have seen many changes to Cricket St Thomas over the years. The Wildlife Park was created in 1967 by the estate’s former owners.

The worst thing that ever happened, in my opinion, was that Mr Blobby arrived to live here. His music blared away and could be heard over at least half the park. Thankfully, for both the animals, who had to put up with it, and us, he and his music are now gone.

The park is now involved in conservation in the wild as well as in captivity, co-operating with various agencies.

If you lack stamina it is best not to go on a hot day, as it is hilly. Most of the slopes are relatively gentle so the attractions can be seen with those needing pushchairs or wheelchairs, though it is preferable to have a fit helper.

Trains run along the side of the valley with the most difficult paths, and wheelchairs can be accommodated in the last carriage of the blue train, which was the only one running on the quiet day we went. I also saw another train in the sidings. This had zebra-like stripes on it, and didn’t appear to be equipped for wheelchairs. They should both be running at peak times. At peak times they charge 50p per adult, with a reduced rate for children occupying a seat, but at other times it is free.

The park likes to provide large natural enclosure for their animals. This may sometimes mean that the animals are not always easy to spot at first glance, but with patience, we saw all we wanted to.


** Our Day **

This year we visited on 20 September, and spent a happy 5 hours there in the warm, dry weather.

After parking the car, we went through to the entrance to pay our admission fees, and were pleasantly surprised to be charged the winter price.

There is “Your Essential Wildlife Park Souvenir Guide” available here. It is a good souvenir, but as the map in it is adequately reproduced around the park, I wouldn’t call it “essential”. The people most likely to want a map with them constantly are the disabled, to make sure they take the easiest route. I bought the guide on the way out as a souvenir, because I didn’t want the hassle of carrying it around the park.

Since our last visit the entrance has changed, and now took us to a path leading to the widest part of the large lake.

The first animals to greet us were the friendly goats. These goats are behind a fence, so there is no need for any timid visitors to get worried by them. On the other side of the path the electric cars, for which there is an extra charge, were closed. I was pleased, as I think this sort of added attraction spoils the quiet countryside setting.

Next we passed the free children’s adventure playground and the Lakeside Food Court. If your family likes adventure playgrounds, look out for more around the park.

This Food Court was also closed, which didn’t bother us, as we preferred to take a picnic to enjoy in the late summer sun, on a bench overlooking the pretty valley, where the grazing animals seemed very content. (For those wanting to buy a meal the Black Swan Pub, at the other end of the lake, serves reasonably priced pub grub and has a family room. This is open all the year round and highchairs are available.)

Talking of grazing animals, photographers need to be aware that the emus are not camera shy. Good they may think, unless they get a bit too close to the fence, and they try to eat their camera. Yes, this happened to me, while I was trying to take a picture of this season’s new juvenile emus.

I felt a little sorry for one of the camels, that I nicknamed Droopy. Despite having lots of food to eat, and not looking otherwise mal-nourished, his humps for storing food were very saggy, while the humps of the other camels were pert. Droopy and friends proved extremely photogenic, in my opinion, and all seemed contented.

We continued on a clockwise walk around the large valley lake, and by mistake, must have missed a sign and ended up in the gardens of the Warners Hotel. Although we shouldn’t have been there, we probably looked like residents, as we were a similar age to all the mature guests we saw, and similarly dressed. This is an adult only hotel.

As we headed back to the wildlife park, we saw a sign saying “YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE WILDLIFE PARK. Please ensure you have purchased your hotel guest pass. Thank you.” We looked around for further signs, and behind us, on the path we had just come down, amongst overgrown plants, we saw one saying, “PRIVATE, Hotel guests only beyond this point.” Oooops!

As we went there accidentally, I might as well let you know that the hotel had very pretty gardens, mostly not overgrown, and a wonderful view over the park.

Then, before us, was a notice attached to a large tree saying, “Don’t Feed the Marmoset”. I guess they meant the one in the process of stealing someone’s picnic.

After he had finished the stolen food, he looked as though he was posing for a photo on the fence, so I approached him slowly. Next thing I know, he is clinging onto the front of my not very strong T-shirt, but after he had got his footing on my under-wired bra, he was a lot more content. Unfortunately, my hubby didn’t have a camera to take a photo of me trying to take a photo.

The previous owner of the picnic he had stolen said, “He loves chocolate buttons. I think he was trying to see if you had any.”

On we went passing an enclosure where a cheetah was, almost successfully, trying to camouflage himself in the long grass, and gazing at some deer drinking through a discreet, but secure, fencing. I knew it was secure because the deer continued drinking, grazing and then resting in peace.

This review is getting long, and I haven’t even got to the best bit yet, so I will quickly tell you that other attractions we enjoyed were the aviaries, incubator room for all sizes of bird eggs, various water loving birds on the lakes, monkeys and the children’s farm.

From previous visits we guessed that the best part of the day would be a trip to Lemur Wood. The inhabitants didn’t disappoint us. It is important both to visitors, as well as the lemurs, not to take food in with you, especially conspicuous food. Lemurs are a lot bigger than the mischievous marmoset I have already told you about.

Despite the large notices, and signs for anyone who may not be able to read English, we saw one family take their picnic in with fruit clearly visible in the tray underneath a pushchair containing a young child. The child screamed as the lemurs fought over the fruit, especially the bananas. Apart from being very frightened, the child was unhurt, and thankfully the parents soon left the wood at the same time as the keeper came in to feed them.

I got very close to the lemurs that usually wouldn’t hurt visitors unless tormented, or they felt threatened. However, common sense, as well as the notices, would make me treat them with respect.

As well as not taking food into the wood, visitors are told that conditions of entry are that the lemurs are not touched, children are kept under close supervision, and the visitors should keep to the paths.

It wasn’t just the lemurs that got feed. A wild rabbit and squirrels came to join in the fun as well. There seemed to be plenty to go round.

The only natural home of the lemur is Madagascar, and there they are threatened by deforestation and other human activity. Therefore, breeding groups like those at Cricket are very important to their continued existence.

Of the fifty plus species and sub species, Cricket has four. They are the black and white ruffed, ring tailed, red-fronted and red-belled lemurs.

Lemur Wood is one of the largest captive sanctuaries in the world. Here the lemurs have an environment comparable to their natural habitat. They can behave naturally both on the ground and high up in the trees.

The size of the area occupied by the red-fronted lemurs is no smaller than they have left in the wild. A sobering thought.

All of Cricket’s lemurs are kept in natural sized breeding groups and are part of European Breeding Programmes. Cricket’s captive breeding is resulting in lemurs being released back into the wild.

Lemurs are primitive primates and their intelligence, curiosity and agility makes them an entertaining attraction. It also makes it difficult to keep them enclosed in a natural way.

The wood has discreet fencing to keep lemurs in and predators out. Human visitors have to go through a double set of doors to get inside. It is, however, not unusual for the most confident ring tailed lemurs to ‘escape’. Don’t worry, the ones that have learnt to get out, can also get back again. This is especially noticeable near their feeding time.

The keepers often give interesting talks, and answer questions, at lemur feeding time. Ask on your day of visit when this is likely to be.

A lot of people want some sort of lemur related souvenir, as I am not the only one who thinks they are the most entertaining animals in the park. You will probably be relieved to hear that the prices of these souvenirs start from under a fiver, and you can get them from the shop that you have to go through to get out.

We bought some pottery animal egg cups for £1.75 each, as we needed egg cups and these looked cute and easy to clean.

That’s this visit to the wildlife park over, but we will be back.


Contact Information

Wildlife Park, Cricket St Thomas, Somerset, TA20 4DB
Website: http://www.wild.org.uk
Tel: 01460 300111

Summary: This wildlife park, in a picturesque valley setting, is a great value day out in Somerset.