Southam Zoo was a small

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

located just east of

Southam Southam () is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. Southam is situated on the River Stowe (called 'The Brook' by many locals), which flows from Napton-on-the-Hill and joins Warwickshire's ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England. It was started as a private zoo on a farm run by Leslie Clews and his wife Pauline, with their sons, Terry and Brian. In 1964 it was featured in a short film made by

British Pathé British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. The zoo was opened to the public in 1966, and continued to be run by the family until Leslie's death when it was sold to Raymond Graham Jones and renamed ''Southam Exotic Cats''. The zoo was the filming location of the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

for

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his ...

's 1981 single

She's Got Claws "She’s Got Claws" is a 1981 song by Gary Numan. It was the first and only single released from his 1981 album ''Dance''. The song signalled a different musical style for Numan, featuring jazz-influenced saxophone and fretless bass, as well a ...

. It was closed to the public in 1985 with many of the animals re-housed at

Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo is a medium to large zoo near Norton Juxta Twycross, Leicestershire. The zoo has the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the Western World, and in 2006 re-launched itself as "Twycross Zoo – The World Primate Centre". ...

. On its site now stands a Mediterranean restaurant, a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

and housing.

References

Zoos in England Former zoos Zoos established in 1966 Zoos disestablished in 1985 1966 establishments in England 1985 disestablishments in England Tourist attractions in Warwickshire Buildings and structures in Warwickshire Southam {{Warwickshire-geo-stub