For 25 years, famous names would visit Maidstone to mark the reopening of the town's zoo with a grand gala.

Their host Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake opened the attraction in the grounds of his home at Cobtree Manor, at Sandling, on March 29, 1934.

At the time, his estate included all the land that now comprises Cobtree Manor Park, Cobtree Golf Course and the Kent Life Museum, so there was plenty of room for his collection of lions, elephants, monkeys, and deer. He also had an armadillo, zebra, llamas, chimpanzees, a brown bear, polar bears, partridges, bison, Siberian wolves and a leopard named Whiskers,

Maidstone zoo closed over the winter months, but Sir Garrard – who was a consummate publicist – welcomed the likes of singer Jessie Mathews, pop star Petula Clark, actors Stanley Holloway, John Mills and Julie Andrews, broadcaster Richard Dimbleby and conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent.

The young Princess Elizabeth even came on one occasion.

The zoo closed its gates for the last time on October 4, 1959.

There are still some people in Maidstone who recall visiting the zoo, and the miniature railway that took them from the road to the zoo’s interior, but for most, the only reminder are the few scattered black and white photographs in family scrapbooks or in private collections, which perhaps fail to give the full impression of what a bustling, lively, exciting place the zoo was.

Until now.

Nick Harris, 39, from Lenham has sought to remedy that by painstakingly restoring and colourising some of the photos that still exist.

He said: “I’ve been restoring and colourising old photos for around 15 years.

“It started as a hobby after my Dad inherited a box of my Grandad's old photos.

“The colourising is done by applying and building up multiple layers of colour tones, essentially like a digital painting by numbers.”

He said he researches written records for clues as to the correct colours to use, but if no historical references are available, then the tones of grey in the black and white photo can give a clue.

Mr Harris, who has his own company Photo Restoration Services, said: “Growing up in Maidstone, I've always been fascinated by Maidstone Zoo. It’s an interesting and unique part of Maidstone's history.

“With the 90th anniversary of the opening this month, I decided to set myself a personal project to colourise a selection of photos to help bring this historical moment to life.”

A number of the original photographs were supplied to Mr Harris by the Frederick Carley Collection, which can be viewed on the Kent Photo Archives website here.

To see more of Mr Harris’s work, visit here.

For those who would like to know more about the history of Maidstone Zoo, the borough council is hosting an exhibition to celebrate the 90th anniversary of its opening at the Learning Space at the new Mote Park cafe in the town, from Saturday, April 6, until Saturday, April 20. The exhibition will be open between 10.30am and 3.30pm every day.

The zoo at Cobtree was the second zoo in Maidstone.

Sir Hugh Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake had opened his first zoo in Tovil in 1914 in the 16-acres of gardens at Tovil Court.

It was known as the Tovil Court Zoological and Pleasure Gardens.

It was an instant success, but his timing was wrong. With the country soon at war, he was forced to close the zoo after only six months because of the difficulty in getting staff - who had all gone off to fight - and because of the sombre mood that had settled on the country.

Later, the difficulty of obtaining food for his animals compounded his problems and much of his collection had to be sold off to a zoo in America.

Sir Hugh Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake was the Mayor of Maidstone 12 times and donated his collection of horse-drawn carriages to the town, which can now be seen in the Carriage Museum.

His grave can still be visited today in Maidstone cemetery.