Chipperfield’s Circus is a long-running English family show based on the 300-year-old Chipperfield dynasty…..which started with James Chipperfield and his performing animals at the Thames Frost Fair of 1684. Through the 19th century, the circus toured all of England….with a menagerie of animals….and teams of acrobats and clowns. Under the management of Jimmy Chipperfield after World War II….the show became one of the biggest circuses in Europe….with a tent that could hold 6000 people. Jimmy Chipperfield then diversified into safari parks and fairgrounds supplies.
Tommy Chipperfield was born and raised in the Chipperfield’s Circus….growing up on the road with a menagerie of animals from chimps to giraffes to elephants….to which Tommy performed in the Circus as a young boy…..and became a big cat trainer, like his dad….but Tommy also trained horses and elephants as seen in this video herewith….in Chipperfiled Circus shows throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s….but when Jimmy Chipperfield died in 1990…. the Chipperfield’s Circus has toured only intermittently…. and only sometimes featuring members of the extended Chipperfield family.
