One of the region’s leading tourist attractions celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend.
Knowsley Safari Park - created by the 18th Earl of Derby - opened its gates for the first time on Saturday July 3rd 1971.
Knowsley was the UK’s third safari park, following Longleat and Woburn. However it was the first to be built close to a large city - just eight miles from the centre of Liverpool - and the first to surrounded by suburban housing estates.
In 1971 safari parks were a new and exciting concept and the attraction - which initially occupied 346 acres of Lord Derby’s estate - attracted a huge amount of interest.
By the end of the first month, 200,000 people had visited the park. By the end of the year, this figure had risen to well over half a million.
On the first Sunday it was open, the approach roads to the attraction were gridlocked. As a result, thousands of people never reached the park.
Around 6,500 vehicles actually made it through the gates, containing upwards of 30,000 visitors. The park was so busy that at the end of the day it took many hours for all the cars to leave. The last visitors drove out as darkness fell, well after 10pm.
Over the years, Knowsley has experienced some difficult times, especially during the UK recessions of the mid 1970s and early 1990s.
However, it has enjoyed a new lease of life since the 19th Earl of Derby took over the running of the Knowsley Estate in 1994, heralding the start of a major redevelopment programme.
Today, after millions of pounds of investment, the 550-acre park is home to 700 animals, and the attraction is as busy as it was in the early 1970s, welcoming more than 500,000 visitors a year.
This weekend’s anniversary is also a personal milestone for General Manager David Ross who has worked for the park throughout its 40-year history. In the early days, as Chief Warden, he actually caught many of Knowsley’s original animals in Africa.
Looking back at 1971 Mr Ross commented: “They were amazing days. People converged on the park in huge numbers to see the new safari park phenomenon for themselves and, looking back, it’s difficult to imagine how we coped with the flood of visitors.
“We had the police trying to handle breakdowns and huge traffic jams outside the park, and the motoring organisations trying to deal with hundreds of stranded vehicles in the park. The AA received more than 150 callouts from members here on one day alone!
“However, it’s remarkable to think that 40 years on - thanks to Lord Derby and everyone involved with Knowsley over the last four decades - the Safari Park is still here, thriving and with many new and exciting projects in the pipeline for the future."
Knowsley will mark the 40th anniversary with a number of special events during July and August, including a nostalgic exhibition on the park’s history in its education centre during the school summer holiday.
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