Knowsley Safari Park

Knowlsey Safari Park is a visitor attraction in the grounds of the ancestral home of the Earl of Derby near the village of Knowsley outside of Liverpool. It opened in July 1971 and allowed tourists to drive round large fenced enclosures containing African wild animals in the safety of their cars while the animals themselves roamed free, a concept based on the success of Windsor Safari Park which had opened two years earlier.

In August 1993, Andy McDonald took girlfriend Amy Nelson and her young son Dominic to the park for a Bank Holiday treat. Dominic was going through a period of being obsessed by wild animals. The lions pawed the windscreen wipers of the park's safari van containing the three, the guests were permitted to feed the elephants through slightly opened windows and Andy and Amy commented on the similarity between the sad faces of the baboons and their boss at Bettabuys supermarket, Curly Watts. At the end of the day, Amy was impressed with the attention that Andy had given to her son and the day out that he had provided for the exhausted youngster.