Shropshire company helping to bring hippos back to safari park
Minshall Construction, based in Market Drayton, have been appointed by the historic Longleat Safari Park to deliver their new Hippo House, bringing a popular visitor attraction back to the park.
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Prior to their deaths in 2023 and 2024, hippos had been a highly popular animal at Longleat Safari Park, with Sonia and Spot roaming the country estates lakes for over 50 years.
Now, with a £2m investment from the park, Minshall Construction have been contracted to build their new hippo enclosure. The project includes the design and build of a new house including internal penning, chutes and a pool for the houses new occupants. The project also include a classroom to allow Longleat to hold training classes and visitors, and the associated external works to create a paddock and pens within the lake for the animals to use on a daily basis.
Tom Minshall, Director at Minshall Construction, comments: "We are extremely proud to be delivering this project on behalf of Longleat Safari Park, and its a testament to our previous work in the zoo and safari world having worked at Chester Zoo, Knowsley Safari Park and West Midlands Safari Park to name a few.
"We manage the whole process from design to build to handover, even fabricating the internal steelwork ourselves. It allows us to offer our clients a one stop solution which is bespoke and animal focused.
"We aim to deliver a high quality facility which will serve the new inhabitants for years to come and give them the highest possible quality of life."
The project started in February on site, with a completion date of 1 June. This will allow the new hippos a month of bedding in before being officially opened to the public in July.
