What is World War Zoo?
‘World War Zoo’ is the public part of a wider research project begun at Newquay Zoo www.newquayzoo.org.uk on how zoos, aquariums and botanic gardens survived World War Two (1939-1945). It's also a recreated wartime garden and a growing archive on wartime life (with some everyday materails shown above).Our next wartime garden weekend will be 1- 3 May 2010 - see events, directions and entry prices on www.newquayzoo.org.uk
World War Zoo is about looking back and looking forward, learning from the past to prepare for our future.
Have sandbags, will blog.
World War Zoo being essentially a past, present and future project, looking both back and forward, it was appropriate to use IT, social networking and new media for communication and messaging.
The story so far ...
Up to date project information with regularly monthly entries has been uploaded since Summer 2009 on our other blog site http://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/.
Twitter entries twittered about the minor tragedy of frost hit salad,
a Facebook profile worldwarzoogardener created in winter 2009 now has a mixed following of zoo, garden and 1940s re-enactor enthusiasts. Even salad needs friends and followers.
a Flickr photostream
RHS blog / forum discussions about recycled planters made out of loo rolls have brought the World War Zoo project to a wider audience than might or can visit the zoo.
We're now preparing the planting plans for 2010.
Our archive of wartime gardening advice suggests that Janauary is a quiet time in the garden. Like all gardeners, the time and resources spent planning and preparing especially in quieter winter periods is returned fruitfully in the form of potentially increased visitor numbers to the zoo and its wartime garden events in spring and summer. A bit more colour and a few more wartime varieties are planned ...
Have gasmask, will visit zoo!
A 'wartime' visit is common for heritage sites but not for zoos or botanic gardens. The success of World War Zoo is partly its 'under the radar' way of looking at sustainability, recycling, food waste and 'grow your own' with public and general visitors.
Teaching the home front in World War Two?
We met lots of children at the garden launch in August 2009 who 'done the war' (tick).
With schools these topics can be introduced in a cross-curricular way, initially through the history curriculum, but embracing citizenship, sustainability (ESD) and science. Animal camouflage and plant defence can be introduced from a new angle. It values our zoos and botanic gardens as a social history or cultural resource.
The history curriculum links on wartime life for schools are well established in the UK at primary and secondary level with the project building towards outreach or offering a whole or part of a school visit to the zoo. It also links to many UK government education vocational learning initiatives.
We hope that staff, schools and families will feel inspired to go off and do the same things at school or home. There are more links on our wordpress.com blog site.
Give Peas a Chance ...
The experience of wartime for zoo keepers, their family and zoo visitors has much in common across many nations.
World War Zoo as a project is not a glorification of Allied victory in war. Our focus and touchstone is on the home front and civilian / non-military aspects, especially in the resources and re-enactors chosen. So no tanks on the lawn, no rifles and no weekend SS divisions ...
The Imperial War Museum in London has photographs of strange European zoo uses in their image collection www.iwm.org.uk and a new Ministry of Food exhibition for 2010 /11 http://food.iwm.org.uk updating their victory garden collaboration with the Royal Parks in 2007, with a Dig for Victory Garden in St. James Park / Imperial War Museum (2007) website http://dig-for-victory.blogspot.com/
World War Zoo
It's recession friendly, thrifty and fashionable again to 'grow your own' and 'make do and mend'. It's sustainability and recycling but with an evocative Vera Lynn 1940s soundtrack.
We'd love to hear from you
Did you or your family work in or visit zoos during wartime?
Are you or friends teaching the subject in schools?
Are you a gardener or a 1940s re-enactor?
We'd love to hear from you.
You can contact the World War Zoo project via mark.norris@newquayzoo.org.uk or its facebook page.
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