Gerry Cottle

❧

Wikipedia

Gerry Cottle
Born
Gerald Ward Cottle

(1945-04-07)7 April 1945
Carshalton, Surrey, England
Died13 January 2021(2021-01-13) (aged 75)
Bath, Somerset, England
OccupationsBusinessman, circus owner, owner of Wookey Hole Caves

Gerald Ward Cottle[1] (7 April 1945 – 13 January 2021)[2][3] was a British circus owner and the owner of the Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset. He presented the Moscow State Circus and Chinese State Circus in Britain, founded Gerry Cottle's Circus, and co-founded The Circus of Horrors.

Early life

Gerry Cottle was born in Carshalton, Surrey to Reg and Joan Ward Cottle.[4][1][5] His father was a stockbroker and grand-master in the Freemasons and his mother was a former air stewardess.[6][5] Gerry Cottle was educated at Rutlish School, Merton Park, south London.[5]

After seeing Jack Hilton's Circus in Earl's Court when he was eight years old, Gerry was inspired to work in the circus. He learned how to juggle with oranges and sometimes was invited by his father to his Freemasons lodge to entertain the members.[1] For two summers he worked at Chessington Zoo Circus and learned how to ride a unicycle.[1]

Circus career

Cottle left home in 1961 at the age of 16 to join the Robert Brothers Circus.[7][1] He joined the Robert Brothers Circus in Newcastle, earning £6 a week as an apprentice and by 1968 was a clown called Scats.[1][8] Cottle started by doing menial tasks, but worked his way up to have his own juggling act, billed as Gerry Melville the Teenage Juggler.[9]

Also in 1970, he met Brian Austen, who worked in the James Brothers Circus. The two formed the Embassy Circus in July 1970 with just five performers; Cottle, Austen, their wives and Austen's brother.[1][10][11] They changed their name to Cottie & Austen's Circus however the two went their separate ways in 1974.[1]

After leaving Austen, Gerry established his Big Top in 1974 and ran it until 2003.[12] By the mid-1970s the Gerry Cottle Circus was touring Britain with three shows.[13] The show appeared regularly on the first four series of Seaside Special.[1] He also presented the Moscow State Circus and Chinese State Circus in Britain.[11]

In 1979, the Circus visited Iran for a performance, however the tour started at the same time as the Iranian Revolution, meaning none of the countries citizens were allowed to leave their homes, resulting in the circus going bankrupt: "We never got paid, ran out of money and had to do a midnight flit from our hotel" (Cottle).[1] He worked as a ringmaster for other venues to make up the money and in 1981 returned with his Rainbow Circus.[1] Also in 1981, he started a short-lived attraction, Gary Glitter's Rock 'n' Roll Circus, but audiences for the shows were few and he quietly ended the show after a few performances.[1]

During his time running the circus he set up a mobile school for the performers’ children.[14]

Cottle announced his retirement in 1993. Two Years later, in 1995, he co-created The Circus of Horrors with Doktor Haze which debuted at the Glastonbury Festival and has toured the world since then.[15] This was a collaborative venture with Archaos, a French contemporary circus.[16]

In 2003 he auctioned off much of his circus paraphernalia when he was refused planning permission to expand on his Addlestone Moor quarters, which was the heart of his company.[1] in order to concentrate on running Wookey Hole Caves, a tourist attraction in Somerset. In 2012 he celebrated fifty years in the business with a new show, Turbo Circus: 50 Acts In 100 Minutes, on a 31-week tour.[17] Cottle and his Magic Circus undertook another months-long tour in 2017.[18]

Animal acts

Gerry Cottle's Circus originally toured with a variety of animals including horses, zebras, elephants, lions, tigers, monkeys, and llamas.[19][20] In 1976, one of Cottle's elephaants, Vicki, appeared on series 4 episode 5 of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, titled "Lofty's Little Friend", in which Gunner Lofty (played by Don Estelle) meets the elephant and it follows him back to camp.[1] The 1980s saw an increase in public opinion against animal acts. Cottle sold his last elephant and by the end of 1993 had a non-animal circus. In 2012 he said that he now reluctantly supports the ban on circus animal acts, which he says will improve the image of circuses in Britain.[19]

Wookey Hole

After purchasing Wookey Hole Caves,[10] a tourist attraction that featured show caves, penny arcades and restaurants, he added a theatre, circus museum, hotel and circus school.[21][22] At the latter, local youth were trained in a wide range of circus skills, and performed at the theatre and in Cottle's touring show Turbo Circus.[23]

In 2005, a Dalek prop in the attraction went missing, and a ransom note was left behind. The prop was then returned after it was discovered in Glastonbury Tor, this was considered a publicity stunt at first, however Cottle denied this in interviews.[24] In August 2006, it was reported that a security dog had ripped apart certain valuable teddy boys on display, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, this however was in fact a publicity stunt, which Gerry admitted to.[25][26]

Personal life

He married Betty Fossett, youngest daughter of circus showman Jim Fossett, in 1968. The couple had three daughters, Sarah, April and Polly and a son, Gerry.[9][1] He was separated from Betty and had another partner, Anna Carter of Carters Steam Fair, who he would also separate from.[27][28] During his first marriage, Cottle left Betty to focus on work only to move back into her caravan less than a year later.[8] He had several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.[5]

In the 1980s he became addicted to cocaine and was jailed and also fined £500 in 1992; he claimed "work stress" caused his addiction.[7][1] His daughters set up Cottle Sisters Circus.[29]

In 1975 he purchased a unimproved plot in Surrey for £40,000 and lived there for 30 years, eventually selling it for £3 million.[30]

Cottle was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 15 September 1984. His choices included the "Radetzky March" by Johann Strauss Sr., and Help! by the Beatles. His favourite was "American Pie" by Don McLean.[31]

Death

Cottle died in hospital in Bath, Somerset, in January 2021, aged 75, after contracting COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.[32]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1975 Going a Bundle Himself One episode[33]
1976 The Generation Game Guest judge/one episode[33]
1977—1994 Pebble Mill at One Two episodes[33]
1981 Forty Minutes One episode[33]
1985 Wogan
1987 Christmas Morning with Noel
1994 This Is Your Life One episode/episode dedicated to Jeremy Beadle[33]
1997 Esther One episode[33]
2001 Trouble at the Top
2011 Timeshift
Salvage Hunters
2018 The Big Audition

Additional

Year Title Notes
1976 It Ain't Half Hot Mum One episode of the show featured an elephant owned by Cottle, Vicki, who is credited as "Vicki from Gerry Cottle's Circus"[1][34]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 "Remembering Gerry Cottle, the showman behind one of Britain's most successful circuses". The Independent. 5 February 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  2. ↑ Gerald Ward Cottle, CompanyCheck. Retrieved 14 January 2021
  3. ↑ "Birthdays", The Guardian, p. 31, 7 April 2014
  4. ↑ "Gerry Cottle, circus showman and Wookey Hole Caves owner, dies of Covid aged 75". The Guardian. 14 January 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Obituary: Gerry Cottle, irrepressible showman who turned his entire life into a circus". The Herald. 9 March 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  6. ↑ "Gerry Cottle, celebrated circus impresario who brought drama and razzmatazz to his shows – obituary". The Telegraph. 14 January 2021. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  7. 1 2 Stroud, Clover (17 September 2006). "Big top, bigger life". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 January 2021.(subscription required)
  8. 1 2 Birkett, Dea (29 January 2021). "Gerry Cottle obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  9. 1 2 "Gerry Cottle: Showman Supreme". National Fairground and Circus Archive. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  10. 1 2 "Cottle leaves big top behind". BBC News website. 4 October 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  11. 1 2 "Gerry Cottle, Circus Barry Walls was a great performer of his with his sons Anthony and Richard joining Cottles Circus at a young age Showman". spitalfieldslife.com. 27 September 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  12. ↑ "Gerry Cottle's Circus returns - in pictures". The Guardian. 20 June 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  13. ↑ "A high-wire act". The Times. 22 August 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  14. ↑ Crump, Ian (2 December 2025). "Louisa the chimpanzee's school life in Southampton". Southern Daily Echo. Newsquest Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 3 December 2025.
  15. ↑ "Circus of Horrors — The Day of the Dead". The Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  16. ↑ Childs, Peter (13 May 2013). Encyclopaedia of Contemporary British Culture. Routledge. ISBN 9781134755547.
  17. ↑ McGill, Stewart. "UK'S FOREMOST CIRCUS SHOWMAN RETURNS WITH BIG NEW TOURING SHOW". An online journal of the circus arts. The International Spectacle. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  18. ↑ Dodd, Rachael (12 September 2017). "Gerry Cottle's circus cancels on Exeter to stay in Plymouth". PlymouthLive. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  19. 1 2 "Circus master Gerry Cottle now supports a ban". Animal Defenders International. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  20. ↑ Hobart, Angela (2006). Aesthetics in Performance: Formations of Symbolic Construction and Experience. Berghahn Books. p. 220. ISBN 9781845453152.
  21. ↑ "Wookey Hole Caves". British Attractions. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  22. ↑ "Turbo-charged entertainment for lovers of circus". This isWestern Daily Press. 20 December 2013. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  23. ↑ "Turbo-charged entertainment for lovers of circus". Western Daily Press. 20 December 2013. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  24. ↑ "Missing Dr Who Dalek found on Tor". 14 June 2005. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  25. ↑ "Elvis' teddy bear leaves building the hard way". NBC News. 2 August 2006. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  26. ↑ "Access Restricted". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  27. ↑ Tyzack, Anna (2 April 2012). "My perfect weekend: Gerry Cottle, circus owner". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  28. ↑ Salter, Jessica (24 August 2012). "World of Gerry Cottle, circus owner". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  29. ↑ "5 days in the life of ... Gerry Cottle". The Independent. 5 April 1998. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  30. ↑ Wright, John (20 September 2020). "Gerry Cottle: 'I've been a millionaire and I've been bankrupt'". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  31. ↑ "Herry Cottle, Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4". BBC. 15 September 1984. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  32. ↑ "Gerry Cottle: Somerset circus star dies with coronavirus", BBC News. Retrieved 14 January 2021
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Gerry Cottle". IMDb. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  34. ↑ It Ain't Half Hot Mum, series 4 episode 5: "Lofty's Little Friend" / 29:22