The original sign

I started to visit the Hawk Conservancy when it was the Weyhill European Wildlife Park. This was about 35 years ago and I brought my children regularly to see the animals and always to picnic in the car park. The park was almost devoid of trees then and it’s only when looking at old photos that you realise how much it has changed.

Don with Major Nigel Lewis, after building barn owl nesting boxes

I clearly remember the foxes (which always seemed to be lying in hollow logs), the badgers, otters, a lynx and a very aggressive porcupine. Then there were the wild boar, which were always up to their bellies in sloshy mud, even in the driest weather. Deer too, mainly fallow and roe and at least one red stag, thought there were probably more. And a highland cow; not a wild animal but a great attraction.

The highlight of the day was when Reg fed the seals, several bucketfuls of fish being thrown in all directions while the seals chased and dived after them, and of course it was a bonus when members of the public got splashed, as often happened.

Donkey rides in 1971

Other memories are of two little boys taking children (including mine) for donkey rides and as anyone who has heard Ashley’s lecture will know, those boys would have far rather been indoors watching The Lone Ranger on TV than walking up and down leading donkeys!

A typical scene in the 1970s - and no trees!

Then there was the bear cub. Funny, I can’t remember the adult brown bears although they were obviously there but I distinctly remember Ashley wrestling with the cub, with the public protected by single straw bales! What would today’s Health & Safety inspectors think of that?

A small agricultural museum was started where Duffy’s Coffee Shop is now, with Reg to explain the uses of the exhibits, and then gradually the change from animals to birds of prey took place. Four demonstrations a day then; at 12 o’clock, 2, 3 and 4 o’clock, with holding birds in between. A kestrel, little owl, tawny owl and sometimes a buzzard too.

No wonder the call went out for volunteers.