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Ron Levett, born in Alfriston, East Sussex, enlisted in 1943, and whilst posted to the British Liberation Army, took part in the liberation of Germany. He then returned to England, setting up his own electronics business and developing an interest in the new entertainment of the time - television.
We had at this time started work at Drusillas Zoo Park in Alfriston. They were expanding under the direction of Michael Ann and his brother Christopher. Michael ran the Zoo while Chris developed Valley Wine.
Both of them required electrical work as both enlarged. The Zoo had more space for development and this took up a lot of Denny's time. As the number of building increased, the supply of electricity grew.
Denny installed main fuse boards to feed each new area, usually in a small building which would allow him to form a store for his installation materials, but also where he could make a little home from home with a water supply and a power point for his kettle.
The displays, such as a diagram of the way that a cow's digestive system works had an electronic system behind them, which we designed and built. I personally wired around 30 Light Emitting Diodes that switched on and off to portray the passage of the food through the cow's stomachs.
There were a lot of exhibits, such as one that children operated by pressing buttons to see such things as the way birds build their nests. These we also built and modified as we found out how heavy-handed children could be.
We had a lot to do with the railway; it's signals and a mechanical figure, which waved at the passengers as the train passed. We built, in conjunction with an ex REME fitter (from the army) who carried out all of the mechanical work at the Zoo, a system for automatically raising and lowering gates where the train entered and left the Llama paddock.
This worked fine until one day there was heavy rain and the gate failed to open because of water on the drive belt that operated the gate. Luckily there were no casualties. The Llamas were moved to a paddock on the downs near to Michael's house.
A new penguin pool was built near the bottom end of the Zoo where visitors could watch them being fed. We installed a public address system using a wireless microphone so that the keeper could talk to the onlookers while feeding was in progress. A large glass window was fitted in the wall of the pool, enabling the children to see the antics of the birds under the water.
Ron Levett, 2001
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