HOW TV STAR ANNA IS STILL LIVING HER WELSH ZOO DREAM
Despite rumours to the contrary, former TV star Anna Ryder Richardson is still running her zoo in Pembrokeshire and, despite the difficulties of lockdown, looking to the future with optimism. Laura Clements reports
ANNA Ryder Richardson wants to set the record straight when it comes to reports about the fate of her zoo project in west Wales.
Two years ago it was reported that the former TV presenter had grown tired of running the 50-acre Manor Park and had decided to move to France.
It came after a terrible tragedy at the attraction and subsequent court case involving Anna and her husband.
But the truth is, Anna never did leave Wales and she still very much owns her zoo here.
According to Anna, a little slice of Pembrokeshire is still very much her home. It is, after all, the place where her two daughters, Bibi and Dixie, have grown up and is virtually all they know.
Anna said: “Sadly, it was a story that got twisted out of proportion and many people think I left Wales for France.
“My daughters were only four and five when we bought the park, so they have literally grown up surrounded by gibbons, rhinos and tigers. Even though it’s been the toughest job, particularly during this Covid time, the dream of my daughters running free in the most beautiful countryside has surpassed anything I could have envisaged for them.”
Anna is now reportedly separated from husband Colin MacDougall, although she refuses to be drawn on the details. She does, however, admit that running the zoo during the pandemic has not been without its challenges.
The park, in St Florence, lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in income following the coronavirus outbreak and was barely able to meet the £400,000 annual running costs, let alone staff wages.
“Lockdown happening at the very beginning of the tourist season here after yet another very wet winter – it couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” she said.
There are just under 200 animals at Manor Park, including tigers, rhinos and zebras, and it’s still very much a popular and thriving attraction for many thousands of holidaymakers and tourists who flock to Pembrokeshire each summer.
Those animals all needed feeding, vets and medicine when the park was closed and Anna was faced with rising electricity and heating bills as they needed to keep the animals warm. With no money coming through the tills, many of the park’s staff were furloughed and just a core team of workers were kept on the payroll.
It’s not the first storm that Anna, now 56, has had to ride out at the animal park, which she has previously said she bought in a “midlife crisis” moment.
In 2010, just two years after she bought the sprawling pile, which came with a dilapidated 18th-century manor house, a four-year-old boy and his mother were crushed when a tree fell on them in the wallaby enclosure.
Both Anna and her husband were charged with health and safety breaches but charges against Anna were withdrawn at the eleventh hour after MacDougall changed his pleas to guilty.
At the end of the three-week trial at Swansea Crown Court in November 2012, MacDougall was ordered to pay a combined £111,000 in fines and costs in relation to the case.
At the time, the hearing offered a rare glimpse into the couple’s down-to-Earth lifestyle and it was revealed that the family had been living in a wooden cabin in an attempt to save money to complete
the rhino enclosure.
It was a far cry from the 30-bedroom Glaswegian mansion they had moved from, which even featured its own lift to the top floor and a bath that lit up.
They were “living the dream”, Anna has said previously, but despite everything, she was still asking: “Is that it?”
None of it was as fulfilling as she thought it would be.
Fast-forward to 2020 and things have moved on significantly. Anna now lives in a four-bedroom farmhouse a few minutes away from the park and the rhinos enjoy a plush enclosure with all the mod cons.
Anna is known to be soft-hearted when it comes to animals and when she first took on Manor Park she inherited Steve the Gibbon, who had been kept in a metal cage and was in a very sorry state.
Advised to euthanise him, Anna refused and instead spent more than £40,000 on building him a brand-new island and special house, and even flew in a mate from Ireland to perk him up.
The ups and the downs of owning a zoo faded away when they closed the gates at the end of every day and waved goodbye to the last of their visitors, said Anna.
“My favourite part of owning a zoo has to be after we close when it’s just us,” she added. “We are so lucky to have 50-plus acres of some of the most beautiful land, and when the sun is going down and you look out and see rhinos, zebras, oryx and ostrich all grazing along side by side, you really could be in Africa.”
Anna posts sporadically on social media – a mix of life at Manor Park and life outside the bubble of the zoo. In all of her posts, the skies are blue, the grass is green and lush and everyone, including the animals, looks happy. It certainly looks as though she is living her best life in rural west Wales.
Among the Instagram shots, all unfiltered, is a smiling Anna sitting astride her horse – officially named Chantry Golden Wonder, but called Crispy for short.
She had always wanted her own horse when she lived in the city and Crispy is her dream come true.
“Personally for me, lockdown gave me some really special extra time with my daughters, 17 and 18,” said Anna.
“We are so lucky here in Pembrokeshire and the weather was amazing, so I can’t think of many places I would rather have been.”
The TV designer made her name alongside Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on Changing Rooms and at one time was a regular on daytime show Change That, also hosting her own show called House Invaders. “Bouncing” from one TV show to the next, Anna was living the busy fast-paced life of fame that came with her six-figure earnings.
But these days holed up in Pembrokeshire, she is more likely to be found in a hedgerow with her wellies on, picking sloes to make sloe gin. In fact, flavoured gins have become a new pastime in lockdown, she added, with bottles of rhubarb gin slowly maturing in her kitchen ready for Christmas.
“My days on Changing Rooms seem a distant memory and the outside is so much more important to me now; however, I do still love interior design,” said Anna.
“Of course, being on TV and living in London brought a much faster pace of life, glamorous parties and eating out. I still miss that and do venture back to London when I can, but if I was asked to swap back the answer would have to be ‘no thank you.’
“Since moving here I have probably spent more time outside than inside... During lockdown I could really get stuck into gardening. One of my favourite TV shows is Gardeners’ World and I’ve still got a lot to learn, but my lawn mowing and strimming aren’t bad.”
The zoo has been up and running again since July 6 following the easing of lockdown restrictions in Wales. There are some changes – all guests must now pre-book their tickets and are given a time slot before they can visit. Social distancing must be observed and the play areas are still closed.
The park is also taking part in the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, meaning people can eat half-price on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Steve the Gibbon is still there – he turned 24 on August 8. In July, Trigger the zebra celebrated his 22nd birthday and Anna’s two red pandas, Betty and Cherry, turned three.
Manor Park is busy once again and, so far, visitor numbers are up.
Anna said: “August should be the busiest month and I don’t want to jinx it but we are busier than normal. Although I really feel for our holidaymakers as the weather hasn’t been the kindest, but it doesn’t seem to put people off. Let’s face it, you don’t come to Wales without a rain jacket and wellies.
“Visitor numbers will slow down after September and then we are left with the reality of having had an incredibly short but very busy season. What I do believe is that this will be the new ‘normal’ and people will explore the UK for holidays again. Let’s hope they choose Pembrokeshire and Wales.”
She added: “I do think another incredibly positive thing to come out of these horrendous times is that zoos were suddenly brought to everyone’s attention. How would we feed and care for 200-plus animals with no income? Still today zookeepers are not classed as ‘key workers,’ which is ludicrous.
“Everyone had an opinion about zoos before but now I hope that some people’s negative attitudes have been changed. ‘Good’ conservation-led zoos are an insurance policy for the future of so many different species which we, as the species that are wiping them out at an alarming rate, have a responsibility to preserve.
“People were so incredibly generous, not just with donations but also bedding, feed, sponsoring, even buying season tickets; without doubt, we wouldn’t have survived without that generosity. It was and still is very humbling.”