History of the Tamar Valley Donkey Park 1989 – 2025

The Tamar Valley Donkey Park (TVDP) welcomed its first visitors 36 year ago. It was established on land known formally, for several hundred years, as Ryland’s Plantation and owned by the Edgcombe Family who also owned much of this part of Cornwall including Cotehele and Mount Edgcombe.

During WW11 the American Forces used the plantation for preparing for D Day including tanks driving up and down the land.

The land (15 acres) was owned eventually by the Jennings family; Mr Jennings was the local AA patrolman on a motor bike and sidecar who would salute you as you passed if you had an AA members badge on your car.

In 1989 Jennings daughter and her family who already owned 2 donkeys came up with the idea to open a visitor centre on the plantation based around donkeys. After getting planning permission and against opposition from the locals, they then rescued 14 donkeys from Ireland to get the sanctuary started. Over the next 10 years they took in more donkeys as well as ponies, sheep, goats, pigs, cows and more. In 1999 they decided to retire so a new chapter began.

1999 a new era began for the Tamar Valley Donkey Park when David and Julia Gibbons and their daughter Tamsin and her husband David Coggon all relocated from Buckinghamshire to take over the Park. They brought with them not only business knowhow and more than 20 years of equine knowledge but also a pony “Derryn”, a thoroughbred “The Wizzard” and 4 cats. In 2002 Tamsin and David had a daughter Bethany who many of our regular visitors would have seen grow up to eventually work in all areas of the park. Bethany is now a very talented musician (www.thecornishharpist.co.uk)

The early years were Easter to October opening, then there was a push for extending the season to all year by the Cornish tourism and hospitality industry, we realized that for us to open all year round we would need some sort of all weather facility. After much thought and discussion the concept was born for a large barn to accommodate entrance and shop, seating and play along with donkey interaction under cover. So in January 2004 six months of construction started and the Donkey Drop-In was built, the Park was fortunate to get the maximum grant of £60k from the Objective One programme towards the £250k cost.

The Donkey Drop-In was very popular and we started opening all year round, with Father Christmas visiting in December each year before going off on the 24th to deliver presents to children around the world. Undercover donkey interaction and rides were very popular and continued until a few years later an industry “code of practice” was adopted, which forbade animals being in the same building where the public might be eating and having their picnics. The Donkey Drop-In then became play, party rooms, charity shop, cafe and entrance shop.

For four years running a team of our donkeys won “BEST GROUP OF WORKING DONKEYS IN THE SOUTH WEST 2004-2007” and in 2006 Punda was runner up in the National individual competition for working donkeys.

The park continued to take in donkeys, ponies and other animals needing a forever home; in 2010 the Tamar Donkey Sanctuary (charity No 1138221) was established.

Over the years the TVDP has taken in over 60 donkeys, 15 ponies, 16 sheep, 8 pigs, 30+ goats and numerous small animals.

In 2019 our family decided that we needed to move on, as David and Julia were approaching their 80’s and needed to retire and Tamsin’s health was not good. So the park went on the market shortly before Covid-19 struck in 2020! The agent had one of his largest ever downloads of the details but which produced only a handful of viewings. Unfortunately no one wanted the park with the high costs of caring for the donkeys and other animals. The park stayed on the market until we accepted an offer for just the land and buildings and not the business in October 2024. We then leased back the park for one year so we could have a controlled closure, as the most important thing for us was finding new forever homes for our donkeys and other animals.

We knew the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary well as we had visited a number of times over the years. In January 2025 they took in 6 of our donkeys. In September 2025 the Flicka Foundation in Penryn took 5 of our donkeys under their care.

Our family then moved to North Cornwall taking with us the 2 oldest donkeys, 2 miniature Shetlands who need special care and 2 goats, these will continue to be looked after by the Tamar Donkey Sanctuary. Tamsin will continue to be the Sanctuary Manager as she has a lifetime of knowledge and experience of equines.

We would like to thank all our visitors for supporting us to give refuge to all the donkeys and other animals we gave a home to over the years,

Thank You again.

David, Julia, Tamsin, David and Bethany

TAMAR DONKEY
SANCTUARY
Charity No 1138221
info@tamardonkeysanctuary.org