Skegness Magazine

An escaped lioness created much excitement in Skegness in the summer of 1936, but not as much, apparently, as amongst the London press.

When he heard about the great escape, a “super-enthusiast for local publicity” telephoned a railway official in London telling him to spread the tidings to the London Press that the animal was at large.

Of course the Press had a field day with the hot news story, some of the reports of which were “grossly exaggerated”.

The unusual incident which caused much excitement occurred on the Sea View Pullover (where the Astroglide is today), where Mr Fred Rye, a well-known Burgh and Skegness wild animal trainer, has a small zoo which includes a trio of lions.
Local character Mr “Billy” Westray was in charge of the animals, and while he was giving the cages a new lick of paint, he accidentally caught the door-latching mechanism and the cage door suddenly swung open.

Leap for Liberty
The quick-witted lioness, thinking all her birthdays had come at once, took a leap for liberty and sprang out of the cage. Luckily “Billy” slammed the door shut again before her mate could follow suit.
The escaped animal, having “taken her bearings” outside the zoo, decided she felt a little peckish and made a beeline for the North Shore Cafe a few yards away. Mrs Vincent, the proprietress of the cafe decided that this was one customer she DIDN’T want and slammed the door firmly shut before the lioness could get inside to sample her wonderful array of confectionery and other gastric delights.

But our lioness was determined to sample the jam-doughnuts, for she paced back and forth along the verandah which fronts the cafe. Luckily there were no articles of crockery on the outdoor tables at the time, oh and, by the way, luckily there were no customers sat at the tables, too!

The animal kept pausing to gaze through the cafe windows, and the feelings of Mrs Vincent and her staff may be better imagined than described.

Failing to secure a tasty morsel, the lioness thought she would explore the dodg’ems track adjoining the cafe. She soon got bored there and headed for a stroll on the beach instead.

Meanwhile, Mr Westway had mustered up some help in the form of Mr Giles, manager of Thompson’s Pleasureland, and tenants and workers of the amusement park.
Eventually the lioness was cornered in a narrow passage between the North Shore Cafe and the dodg’ems track. A motor trailer was requisitioned and the escapee was manoeuvred into it and conveyed back to her cage.