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The Sun
5 hours ago
- The Sun
Popular zoo with UK's largest herd of elephants offering kids tickets for £10 – great for families in school holidays
A POPULAR zoo which is home to the UK's largest herd of elephants is offering kids tickets for just £10 this summer. Howletts Wild Animal Park, in Kent, is packed with wildlife wonders, from mighty gorillas and gentle elephants to prowling big cats. 2 Howletts is a wildlife sanctuary and home to over 390 animals across 44 species, including Sumatran tigers and Kent's only giant anteaters. Explore a 90-acre adventure in ancient parkland that is ideal for great days out in Kent with the entire family. Make your day out even more special with a close encounter with your favourite animal, or a guided walk with expert Rangers. For the school summer holidays, kids can bag entry for just a tenner, giving families the chance to get up close to incredible animals without busting the budget. Key highlights There are plenty of immersive experiences — including a walk-through enclosure where visitors can mingle with free-roaming lemurs just inches away. Animal fans can also step back in time in the Ice Age zone, packed with life-sized sculptures of prehistoric beasts. The elephants steal the show — and you might be lucky enough to tuck into lunch at a picnic table right next to their enclosure. The monkeys are another heart-melter, with a few adorable babies clinging to their mums. The Pavilion Restaurant offers a variety of meals and refreshments, with ample seating both indoors and outdoors. There's also a huge outdoor play area where little ones can burn off some energy, plus plenty of grassy spots perfect for a run-around between animal encounters. The Best Value Attraction In The UK Is Flamingo Land Customer reviews Visitors rave about the park, praising its spacious enclosures, knowledgeable staff and the chance to see rare animals up close. Many call it a 'must-visit' for families, with kids loving the hands-on learning and parents impressed by the zoo's strong conservation message. Taking to TripAdvisor, one wrote: "As a family we always try and find somewhere new to visit! We come across here so we thought why not! And we was NOT disappointed." "Best zoo we have been too that's not just because of the beautiful place it is but because of the people that make it so beautiful! Tips for keeping organised during the summer holidays IF you aren't sure how to keep organised during the summer holidays, then you've come to the right place. Senior Fabulous Writer, Sarah Bull, has shared her top tips... FOOD: One thing I find difficult is keeping on top of my kids' constant requests for snacks. Despite the fact they have one break time at school and then lunch, their demands for food during school holidays seem to be 24/7. To make things easier, I've decided to bring in snack baskets for them. They each have a certain amount of food (the same so that there's no arguments) and once it's gone, it's gone. Not only does it make my life easier, it teaches them that they have to spread things out - and to maybe see if the 'hunger signals' are actually ones of hunger or thirst. ACTIVITIES: It can be hard to keep your kids entertained - and six weeks can feel like an awfully long time. One thing to take advantage of is having an outside space. If you have a garden, you can put bikes or scooters in there, or even a trampoline. It keeps them entertained and also makes sure they're doing some kind of physical activity every day. If you don't have the space for a climbing frame or added activities, why not give the kids a bucket of chalk and get them to draw on the paving slabs? Or another one I did was to give the kids a 'magic solution' I needed painted on the wall (it was just water and washing up liquid) to protect it. They spent a good hour doing that! CLOTHES: One thing I've used from when my daughter, now six, started school is to use clothing drawers for her and my son, who's 10. On a Sunday, I put all of their clothes, underwear, socks etc in the corresponding drawer for the week. Usually it's uniform, but I still use the drawers during the holiday too. It just makes things easier, more organised and less stressful - for all of us. "From the start it was just the best experience and a lifetime long memory made!" Another added: "We have NEVER been to a zoo that is so friendly and we as a family love a zoo but this zoo everyone was so lovely. "We went for my daughter's birthday and the Lion feed was so private which was amazing!! "Honestly we can't wait to go back and I would highly recommend the zoo!! I would just go back to see all the staff again!! Thank you for making my daughter's birthday special." A third penned: "Plenty of animals to see! We saw Tigers and a group of lion cubs having a meal. Nice range of animals. It was also lovely to see a Black Rhino. "Each enclosure provides information about how they are recused and if they plan to return back to the wild. Attention to detail is noticeable. "My favourite part was the Jurassic display! Life-sized models of animals/ dinosaurs, the kids love it!" The deal runs from July 23 to September 2, 2025. 2
Times
3 days ago
- Times
Atherton on 2005: fierce first hour at Lord's that left Australia bloodied
For the then travel editor of the Telegraph group, Graham Boynton, July 2005 provided two bucket-list opportunities: a Lions tour of New Zealand and the Lord's Ashes Test. On July 21, which dawned dull and overcast, Boynton queued outside the Grace Gates from 6am, keen to ensure he could bag a favourite seat in the turret of the old Pavilion. When the gates finally opened that morning, there was the usual unseemly rush from the MCC members — the 'Donkey Derby', as the England players called it — to make good the claims for a prize viewing spot. By that stage, both teams were already in the ground, England's having travelled from the Landmark hotel, in Marylebone, and Australia's from the Kensington Garden hotel. Adam Gilchrist was feeling typically nauseous. Although a two-times Ashes winner, he always felt this way before the start of a series against England: would he be a part of a team that finally lost Australia's grip on the urn? It was a peculiar kind of pressure, heightened that year by the real sense of expectation among the home supporters and England's evident strength in the one-day games preceding the Test series. A week or two earlier, Gilchrist had sent Teddy Roosevelt's 'The Man in the Arena' speech to his team-mates, with some encouraging words about how close they were to finding their best form. That he felt the need to send it at all may have also betrayed some of the worry and fear that rose again now that the Test series was close. Australia were strengthened by the return of the great Shane Warne and Justin Langer, who had missed the one-day matches. It was Langer's first Test at Lord's and his feelings of nausea were also rising once Ricky Ponting had won the toss and elected to bat, not helped by the smells of coffee, bacon and tobacco that wafted towards the dressing room as he padded up. To calm his nerves, Langer listened to Eminem's Lose Yourself on his headphones. 'Look, if you had one shot or one opportunityTo seize everything you ever wanted in one momentWould you capture it, or just let it slip?… You can do anything you set your mind to, man' In the England dressing room, Michael Vaughan gave some brief, final thoughts. Like Ben Stokes now, Vaughan was not one for heightening the tension or pressure, and he told his players to relax — as best they could — and enjoy themselves. Duncan Fletcher reminded them to 'get in their [the Australians'] space' and stand up to what he termed 'the schoolyard bully'. That virtually every England player eventually made a point of recalling the noise in the Long Room as they walked out on that first morning signified the rare atmosphere, although each had their own take on it. Marcus Trescothick thought the sound like the thunder of an underground train approaching the next stop. Vaughan described it as a 'throaty growl'. Simon Jones remembered the 'roaring and the shouting'. Steve Harmison thought the cheering of posh men did not sound much like the cheering on the terraces of his home town football club, Ashington. That they all felt the need to remark on it, however, suggests the atmosphere was far removed from the norm. Instead of looking up briefly from their morning papers as the players strolled by, the MCC members roused themselves to fever pitch. Normally, Matthew Hoggard would take the first over, but that morning Vaughan changed tack and gave the new ball to the pumped-up Harmison from the Pavilion End. What followed was one of Harmison's fiercest spells in an England shirt, the start of what Langer called the best session of cricket he experienced in his Test career, and a marker for what was to come. With his second ball, Harmison struck Langer a nasty blow on the right elbow, requiring treatment from Errol Alcott, the Australian physiotherapist, for an egg-sized lump that duly appeared. As he took time out to get feeling back in his hand and arm, Langer said to Matthew Hayden, his opening partner, 'These guys mean business!' In his third over, Harmison hit Hayden on the helmet with a short ball, to confirm Langer's intuition. After Hayden was dismissed by Hoggard, Ponting became the third batsman to be hit in the opening hour, when a short ball from Harmison rattled the Australian captain's helmet with such vigour that blood was drawn from the cheekbone, resulting in a scar that Ponting still carries to this day. Halfway through the 11th over of the morning, drinks were called as Ponting took treatment. Neither Harmison nor England's fielders inquired, as would be the custom, whether Ponting was OK at this point. This angered Langer, who shouted, at no one in particular: 'Is this what it has come to? Is it war then?' Two things were apparent in that first hour to offer a clue as to England's eventual series victory, even though they lost the match heavily. The first, was the intensity and cutting edge of the home attack, and the second was the success of the planning and strategy to each Australian batsman. There was a clue, for example, in the way Hoggard worked over Hayden, with fields set to nullify his booming off-side play. Fletcher had outlined England plans before the match and to Hayden, the bowlers were to 'look to get a nick from a fourth-stump line,' to 'bowl your bouncer on leg stump' and 'bowl dot balls' because Hayden, according to Fletcher, 'has a big ego and doesn't like being tied down'. They were told to set a catcher 'on the drive' because he could 'hit in the air through mid-off/extra cover'. To Gilchrist, they were told to search for a 'nick behind from off stump or just outside' and 'go around the wicket and cramp him for room'. Later on that first day, Andrew Flintoff dismissed Gilchrist from round the wicket, which would be a running theme of the series, reducing Australia's wicketkeeper to a shadow of the player who had tormented England previously. The potency of England's attack was evident to all. Throughout the series, England's bowlers would prove to be quicker and more hostile than Australia's and more skilful with the old ball, giving Vaughan an attack that had the wherewithal to take 20 wickets in a variety of conditions. Has there been a better or more rounded England pace attack ever than the quartet of Harmison, Hoggard, Flintoff and Jones? All that was ahead, of course. As the dust settled on a spicy contest, won by Australia by 239 runs, Langer led the traditional celebration of a Test-match victory by singing the team song. There was a sting to this story though: the Australians stayed so late that England's players had left by the time the song was conducted, and they marched into the England dressing room to sing it. In his book, Keeping My Head, Langer writes in detail about this error of judgment. He began the revelry by taking the mickey out of his team-mates, in particular Glenn McGrath, who had been given some gold boots to celebrate taking his 500th Test wicket, and then he noticed the England players' name tags were still written above the plush, leather seats where they changed. He began to take the mickey out of them, too, in their absence. 'And so I went around the England players having a laugh at their expense,' he later wrote. 'We finished with a raucous rendition of the team song and then left. Call it arrogant, call it fun — nowadays I just call it stupid. Forget 'Pidgeon' [McGrath] and his gold boots, I was the knob that night and it came back to bite me and the team on the arse.' Not that we knew it then, although the first hour of the series had offered plenty of clues. First Ashes Test, Lord's July 21 to 24, 2005Australia won by 239 runs Australia first inningsJ Langer c Harmison b Flintoff 40 (44 balls)M Hayden b Higgard 12 (25)R Ponting (capt) c Strauss b Harmison 9 (18)D Martyn c G Jones b S Jones 2 (4)M Clarke lbw b S Jones 11 (22)S Katich c G Jones b Harmison 27 (67)A Gilchrist (wk) c G Jones b Flintoff 26 (19)S Warne b Harmison 28 (29)B Lee c G Jones b Harmison 3 (8)J Gillespie lbw b Harmison 1 (11)G McGrath not out 10 (6)Extras (b 5, lb 4, nb 11, w 1) 21Total (40.2 overs) 190Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-55, 3-66, 4-66, 5-87, 6-126, 7-175, 8-178, 9-178, Harmison 11.2-0-43-5; Hoggard 8-0-40-1; A Flintoff 11-2-50-2; S Jones 10-0-48-2. England first inningsM Trescothick c Langer b McGrath 4 (17)A Strauss c Warne b McGrath 2 (21)M Vaughan (capt) b McGrath 3 (20)I Bell b McGrath 6 (25)K Pietersen c Martyn b Warne 57 (89)A Flintoff b McGrath 0 (4)G Jones (wk) c Gilchrist b Lee 30 (56)A Giles c Gilchrist b Lee 11 (13)M Hoggard c Hayden b Warne 0 (16)S Harmison c Maryn b Lee 11 (19)S Jones not out 20 (14)Extras (b 1, lb 5, nb 5) 11Total (48.1 overs) 155Fall of wickets 1-10, 2-11, 3-18, 4-19, 5-21, 6-79, 7-92, 8-101, 9-122, McGrath 18-5-53-5; Lee 15.1-5-47-3; Gillespie 8-1-30-0; Warne 7-2-19-2. Australia second inningsJ Langer run out (Pietersen) 6 (15)M Hayden b Flintoff 34 (54)R Ponting (capt) c sub (Hildreth) b Hoggard 42 (65)D Martyn lbw b Harmison 65 (138)M Clarke b Hoggard 91 (106)S Katich c S Jones b Harmison 67 (113)A Gilchrist (wk) b Flintoff 10 (14)S Warne c Giles b Harmison 2 (7)B Lee run out (Giles) 8 (16)J Gillespie b S Jones 13 (52)G McGrath not out 20 (32)Extras (b 10, lb 8, nb 8) 26Total (100.4 overs) 384Fall of wickets 1-18, 2-54, 3-100, 4-255, 5-255, 6-274, 7-279, 8-289, 9-341, Harmison 27.4-6-54-3; Hoggard 16-1-56-2; Flintoff 27-4-123-2; S Jones 18-1-69-1; A Giles 11-1-56-0; I Bell 1-0-8-0. England second inningsM Trescothick c Hayden b Warne 44 (103)A Strauss c & b Lee 37 (67)M Vaughan (capt) b Lee 4 (26)I Bell lbw b Warne 8 (15)K Pietersen not out 64 (79)A Flintoff c Gilchrist b Warne 3 (11)G Jones c Gillespie b McGrath 6 (27)A Giles c Hayden b McGrath 0 (2)M Hoggard lbw b McGrath 0 (15)S Harmison lbw b Warne 0 (1)S Jones c Warne b McGrath 0 (6)Extras (b 6, lb 5, nb 3) 14Total (58.1 overs) 180Fall of wickets 1-80, 2-96, 3-104, 4-112, 5-119, 6-158, 7-158, 8-164, 9-167, McGrath 17.1-2-29-4; Lee 15-3-58-2; Gillespie 6-0-18-0; Warne A Dar (Pk), R Koertzen (SA).
The Guardian
4 days ago
- The Guardian
‘Brownfields can be rich habitats': the abandoned oil refinery where wildlife now thrives
'You must see this!' Marc Outten shoulders past tangles of blackthorn and shimmies around hummocks of blackberries the size of buses and glades filled with wildflowers. What beautiful wildlife spectacle awaits? Weaving across carpets of bird's foot trefoil, we reach our destination: a vast, barren circle of asphalt, 70 metres across – the ruins of an uncompleted oil refinery. 'You'll find rare bees and reptiles around the edge and you've got these lovely stonecrops and lichens,' enthuses Outten, a naturalist and RSPB's site manager for Canvey Wick nature reserve. The derelict asphalt pad is buzzing with rare nature. This 'ruined' landscape – where disused street lamps poke up above rampant scrub – resembles some kind of post-apocalyptic London. But in its ruination, this brownfield site beside the Thames in Essex has become one of the most nature-rich places in Britain, home to 3,200 species including endangered shrill carder bees, pantaloon bees, water vole, cuckoos and long-eared owls. Canvey Wick is celebrating its 20th anniversary as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) as conservationists warn many similarly wildlife-rich brownfield sites are threatened by development, particularly in the Thames Gateway. Tilbury ash fields, home to 185 invertebrate species of conservation concern including the great sneak-spider, is imperilled by plans to expand the port of Tilbury. Meanwhile, a Google datacentre is proposed on a local wildlife site close to Lakeside that is home to nightingales, rare plants and scarce invertebrates such as the brown-banded carder bee. Canvey Wick shows what can happen when a brownfield site is protected. Since it was bought by the Land Trust and managed by the RSPB in partnership with Buglife, an astonishing range of rare species have made their home on its 93 hectares (230 acres): 11.7% of its 3,200 species are classified as rare, scarce, threatened or near threatened. Eight years ago, there were no nightingales on Canvey Wick. Today there are 21 nightingale territories in the thickets of blackthorn, hawthorn and bramble – a vital new stronghold for the much-loved but endangered songbird. 'People assume that brownfield sites are very low value for biodiversity – until they see what a brownfield site can really do,' said Outten, on a tour of the site during which we find pantaloon bees, spectacular Jersey tiger moths and increasingly rare wall brown butterflies. 'If brownfield sites are left to sit around for a while, they develop into really rich habitats. This would've been a very desolate space full of sand, concrete and tarmac and now we've got this wonderful nature reserve. There's so much structural diversity and the more structural diversity you have, the more biodiversity you have – that's what makes this place so special.' Canvey Wick was green grazing marshes until humans ruined them – and inadvertently made one of the most nature-rich places in Britain. An oil refinery was planned for Canvey Wick in the early 1970s. The ground was raised with dredging from the Thames: sands, shingle and even seashells. Concrete roads and street lamps were built. Thirty two and a half circular asphalt pads were constructed as bases for vast oil storage containers. And then the 1973 oil price shock halted work. The refinery was abandoned. Over the next 50 years, nature raced in. The unusual diversity of soil types and hot microclimates attracted an unusual range of invertebrates: there are 250 species of bee, wasp and ant on the site, including the brown-banded carder bee, five-banded weevil-wasp and carrot mining bee. They feed on an unconventional mix of native and non-native flowers including bristly oxtongue and everlasting pea. As the human ruins subside beneath greenery, conservationists must manage the rapidly changing site to balance the competing needs of different rare species. What's great for nightingales – more scrub – will cause many heat-loving invertebrates to disappear. When the site was first designated an SSSI in 2005, there was just 15% scrub and tree cover. Today it is more like 70%. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion 'Some scrub is great but having that open mosaic flower-rich grassland is really important,' says Outten. 'How do you strike the balance between clearing areas and retaining nightingale habitat? A lot of this is cutting-edge stuff. 'Restoring' brownfield is not something many organisations have got into.' A three-year project at Canvey has cut back some scrub, and created new scrapes of bare sand required by rare invertebrates and species such as adders. The cut-and-scraped areas are now burgeoning with wildflowers and insects again, while cleared ditches are home to scarce emerald damselflies and blue-eyed hawker dragonflies. Conservationists hope it will inspire the creation of more brownfield nature reserves. 'Canvey Wick demonstrates how brownfield sites can be transformed into vibrant green spaces that serve the community and provide important habitats for wildlife,' says Alan Carter, the chief executive of the Land Trust. 'We are extremely proud of the regeneration efforts carried out since taking on the ownership of the site in 2012. The site is now one of the top locations in Britain for endangered invertebrates, an impressive achievement.' Although important parts of Swanscombe peninsula were saved from development threats when Natural England designated it an SSSI in 2021, Buglife is calling on the government's wildlife watchdog to urgently give more sites the same protection, including Tilbury ash fields. Natural England has 'Thames estuary invertebrates' in Essex and Kent listed in its SSSI designation 'pipeline' but the watchdog has been criticised for failing to designate many endangered places in recent years. Carl Bunnage, head of nature policy at RSPB, said: 'Brownfield sites are not always just dead, ugly and abandoned spaces. Indeed, as Canvey Wick shows, they can provide specialist habitats and be havens for nature – full of life of all kinds. With the government currently driving reforms to the planning system in England, and prioritising the re-development of brownfield sites, it is vital that the nature-value of sites is properly assessed before planning decisions are taken.' Conservationists hope Canvey Wick can also inspire smaller ways of attracting rare wildlife: depositing piles of sand or crushed concrete on a place may not look conventionally pretty but it will create soils and microclimates where myriad wildflowers and invertebrates can thrive. Outten, who was raised in the area, hopes Canvey will inspire the creation of other similar nature reserves so there is a network for rare species, which can be enjoyed by the local community as well. 'People feel passionately about it. We want to strike the balance between giving people a place where they can access green space but also protect the species that the site is important for. It's a unique place. There's nowhere else like it,' he said.
