Tilgate Park — Attraction in Crawley

Originally this council facility that has grown from a petting zoo that used to have an avery that contained locally donated parrots and minor birds that years ago, had a very colourful reportoire of locally sourced rude words and phrases (I am talking about at least 30 yrs yrs ago and they are long gone...I really miss those birds🤣😂🤣) ...However from those humble origins, Tilgate has grown from strength to strength into what is now a truly excellent mini animal park with genuinely excellent zoological credentials of which the council staff and volunteers should be rightly proud. I know some would not agree with animals being confined, but in the scale of this park, it is achieved in an extremely nice way, and you are left in no doubt that the animals are well cared for. In fact, this is achieved in a scale appropriate to the site's size and in some respects with its different earth zones, it is the match of a lot more expensive and difficult to get private animal parks. This is a place Crawley as a parent and grandparent over the years, I am very glad it...

Wonderful place that I took my children and now take my grandchildren. However, how it has changed! There is more to do now but my goodness this is not the cheap day out it used to be!! £7 for the car park, £30 for a family of 4 for the farm /zoo (plenty of animals hiding and empty pens and cages), £4.50 for an ice cream cornet! Even if you take your own picnic and buy a couple of drinks you could easily be looking at £75! Of course prices have increased but that same day out would have cost £5 30 years ago. It's now 14 times the cost. Have wages increased by 14 times? Example, someone earning 20k per year now earning 280k per year? I don't think so. I'd looked forward to taking my grandchildren there regularly as I'd taken my children but sadly I can't afford to. All that said, it's a great place and if you're able to keep the visit low cost and low key it's worth a visit. There's plenty for children to do just be aware that some of it...

Great display of dinosaurs although some of them are looking very tatty. Others are in great condition and the animation is pretty good. Entry is not cheap and I will probably not go again, type of thing you only do once. This targeted for younger kids (8 and younger).

The one bit I would strongly advise just walking through and not wasting your money is the fairground. There's the usual stuff but the difference here is that some events use tokens and others don't, lovely trap to make you spend more money. Everything is very expensive and there were quite a few parents left with one token which there is nothing to use on. If you choose to try something avoid the cork guns they barely make it to any target and this is even with the lad trying several times.

For us the fairground spoilt the overall event and for that reason it gets the 3 star score. If it was kept just to the dynasuars it would of scored...