Cedars Nature Centre, a community zoo.

Cedars Nature Centre is a community zoo set in the grounds of Cedars Park in Cheshunt. The park has a history of live exotic animals that dates back to King James I, who kept his own menagerie there.

In 1921, Sir Hedworth Meux (pictured) donated the park to the people of Cheshunt. The Borough of Broxbourne began managing this as a green space for the community.

Since then, there has been a more modern history of live animals being kept on site as the Borough of Broxbourne established a 'Pets Corner' that housed rescued birds and mammals. In recent years, this area of the park was at risk of closing owing to budget constraints.

In 2015, Stu and Nick approached the council and offered to run 'Pets Corner' independently and introduce their own exotic animal collection. This ambitious venture was met with huge enthusiasm by council members and park users alike. The only stipulation being that the zoo would have to remain 'free to enter'. CNC is one of only a few free to enter zoo's in the UK.

Over the course of a year, Stu and Nick transformed the corner using their own money, donations of timber from Beaumont Timber in Hoddesdon, volunteers from Herts Mind Network and via a financial donation from Freddie Pearce (pictured).

Nick built new aviaries to house the inherited birds as well as aviaries for the new animals being introduced. Stu set to work on the application for the zoo licence, a long and lengthy process.

Phase one has been completed on a shoestring budget of around £30k. Neither Nick or Stu have taken any payment for their efforts and have funded the initial phase themselves. They are totally unsupported financially from outside investors. It is estimated the initial build would have cost £70k if they had brought in outside contractors.

Now phase one is complete, CNC have been able to open the doors to the parks patrons this summer (2017). Next part of the project is phase two; building a dedicated off-show area for animal welfare and, crucially, the endangered species room. This vital part of the project will allow them to work alongside established breeding programs on native and non-native species.

In addition, CNC are looking to add more aviaries to the centre for the publics engagement, add weekly presentations, story time and other events. One additional requirement will be for hand washing stations for the publics health and safety.

Stu and Nick rely on the donations made by the public coming through the doors daily, as well as rolling out sponsorship of the animals and volunteers in the near future.

With the Just Giving Page, CNC hope to enable those who wish to donate remotely an opportunity to support this community zoo and the project. Donations received will only be used for materials and maintaining the existing animal collection.