Barry Island Pleasure Park
Encyclopedia
Barry Island Pleasure Park is an amusement park
situated on the coast at Barry Island
in the Vale of Glamorgan
, about 10 miles south west of the capital city Cardiff
, Wales
. The park opens annually at weekends from Easter onwards and daily during the school summer holidays, until the first weekend in September.
Barry Island contains a wide assortment of shops, bars and restaurants. The Pleasure Park was once famous for its Scenic Railway which dominated half of the site in the mid-20th century, but was partially destroyed in a strong gale during 1973 before being dismantled. Many of the scenic railway's beams were used in the building of the current Log flume
ride, which remains one of the parks most popular attractions.
The pleasure park has over thirty rides and attractions, including the Log Flume, Viper Rollercoaster
, Sea Ray Pirate Ship, Dodgems and many others. Park entrance is free of charge, and ride tickets were available from the park ticket boxes.
Several Amusement arcade
s are located around the pleasure park.
Barry Island Pleasure Park is part owned by Ian Rogers, who used to run Welsh discount chain Hypervalue
before it ran into financial difficulties in recent years. In 2006, a company called Hilco UK Ltd who specialise in dealing with failing retail businesses assumed control of the ailing Hypervalue group and commenced disposing of various Hypervalue stores and settling accounts with the many creditors. Mr Rogers now owns part of the reorganised group, renamed Hypa Xtra.
when the tide was in. As a further incentive for visitors to come to Barry, an extension to the railway line, through a boxed in tunnel on a 250 yard long pier structure, was built from the mainland to a new station next to the main Barry Pierhead. This enabled visitors to board the paddle steamers that plied in the Channel to Bristol
, Clevedon
and Weston-super-Mare
. Once the rail link was completed the visitor numbers to the island exploded and one Bank Holiday weekend, over 150,000 visitors were recorded arriving on the island, and most of those came by train. Trains were arriving every ten minutes and by 5 p.m. were leaving at the same rate. The station opened in time for the August Bank Holiday week in 1896 giving the impetus for the development of further attractions on the island.
set up on the main beach for each summer season. In that year the first major ride attraction was built. A Switchback Railway
had been designed and built by the famous American coaster engineer LaMarcus Thompson specially for the Cardiff
Empire Exhibition at Sophia Gardens
in 1896, dismantled following the year-long exhibition and put up for sale. It was bought by the White family and installed at the western end of the beach edge on the present day site of The Olde Pavilion Café (named after the Pavilion Theatre, which had been situated amongst the sand-dunes), Barry Athletic Club's car park now stands where the Switchback ride ended.
With no competition the Switchback was a very popular and crowded attraction with Victorian holidaymakers and day trippers from the South Wales Valleys
for fifteen years until a much larger Figure 8 roller coaster
, also built by LaMarcus Thompson, opened on the edge of the beach level with the present pleasure park site in the spring of 1912. The Switchback’s trade declined, in competition with the more exciting Figure Eight and it only operated for another two years, finally closing in 1914 just as World War I
in Europe started and the number of holiday visitors dropped off dramatically. A military hospital was established on the island, near the fairground and thousands of injured soldiers recuperated on the beaches and sand-dunes.
, the fairground was relocated from the beach onto its current permanent site where the sand dunes were laboriously levelled and the site enclosed inside an iron railing fence. The White Bros (sons of Sydney White who died in 1938 at the age of 78), who held the beach concession, bid for and became the first tenants of the newly formed Barry Island Pleasure Park on land rented from the Whitmore Bay Pavilion Syndicate.
The White brothers remained in control of the park until the close of the 1929 season. That year the White Brothers had cheekily outbid Pat Collins, legendary showman from the famous Collins fairground dynasty, for his lease on a highly profitable and major pleasure park at Evesham
in the west midlands, that served day trippers from metropolitan Birmingham
and Wolverhampton
. When the brothers returned from a period of touring with their mobile fair rides and tried to renew their own Barry Island lease, the following year in 1930, they were stunned to discover that a furious Pat Collins had eked his retribution by outbidding them in turn on their home territory.
To make it perfectly clear why he had taken this step Collins, tongue in cheek, renamed the Barry Island Park as 'The New Evesham Pleasure Park', a name it carried until 1950. The dejected White Bros moved their operations across the road to a new and much smaller site, which they named 'White's Cosy Corner' and eventually established as a restaurant, an amusement arcade and a dodgem cars rink. Cosy Corner was destroyed by arson in 1999 and the shell demolished, but after several stalled planning applications the site was redeveloped and reopened in 2007 as a family entertainments centre.
Empire Exhibition. His younger brother John designed a Scenic Railway as a direct copy of the Great Yarmouth
Scenic Railway also installed for Pat in 1932 (as a rebuild of the Erich Heidrich designed 1929 - 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition
Scenic Railway), but with slightly larger dimensions and at an enormous cost of £150,000 (£4,000,000 in today's terms). When the exhibition closed the ride was dismantled and shipped to Liège in Belgium
where it was due to form the centerpiece of the planned International Water Exhibition. The ride was nearing completion in late 1939 when Nazi Germany
undertook the surprise invasion of Poland and World War II
broke out. Construction was immediately ceased and the ride dismantled again before being rushed back to the UK and rebuilt instead at Barry Island, on a site originally occupied by St. Peirio's Monastery (Barry Island was once known as Ynys Peirio).
With a track of just over a mile long and an initial climb and drop of seventy two feet it was the biggest wood built roller coaster ever erected in the UK. It was also one of the last such railway to be built in this country. Arriving on the island in the late autumn of 1939 the ride was built over the winter and was ready to be opened by Easter 1940. Along with the other traditional scenic railways the ride’s wooden framework was covered in rippled thick plaster and painted to resemble a rocky mountain landscape. The original colour scheme featured turquoise and purple rocks with white tips at the highest points to represent snow. In later years the ride was painted in various shades of brown and green before returning to its original turquoise. The massive ride only just fitted into the available space and ran almost the full length of the park, although the top entrance (giving access to the island’s railway station) had to be moved by several yards.
The Scenic Railway towered over Barry Island for the next thirty three years and remained a popular attraction throughout its operating life. The structure was partially dismantled, serviced and rebuilt in 1963 but unfortunately the ride had to be demolished in 1973 after being badly damaged in a severe winter gale and deemed uneconomical to repair. It was also becoming outdated and unable to compete with the newer and more modern high speed 'white knuckle' enclosed-steel-runner 360o looping thrill rides that were starting to be introduced.
Now located on the site where the Scenic Railway once stood is the present and much smaller Log Flume
ride built during 1980. Wooden beams from the Scenic Railway were salvaged, stored and reused in the construction of the Flume and other beams formed the basis of the Wacky Goldmine (now renamed the Haunted Mine).
is identical to the demolished Barry Island ride, only slightly smaller in its dimensions and incorrectly called a "rollercoaster". The only other surviving 1930s scenic railway in the UK is located in Dreamland Margate
(despite being a Grade 2 Listed Building the ride was mothballed and had been under imminent threat of demolition, since the 'Dreamland' park went into receivership in 2002. However in April 2008 the coaster was partially destroyed in an arson attack and will not be rebuilt until 2009 or 2010.
In 1950, an ailing and increasingly ill Pat Collins had handed over control of the park to his younger brother, John, who took over and ran the fairground until 1966, when it was passed on to John's two young sons, also named in the family tradition John and Pat. That year also, the new Butlins
holiday camp opened and provided the park with more regular customers than it had ever had before. With the increased income generated by Butlins campers the Collins brothers managed to purchase the freehold rights to the Pleasure Park in 1969.
Apart from the years immediately after the park opened, the busiest and most profitable period were the ten years spanning the opening of Butlins in 1966 and the mid 1970s when foreign package holiday
s started to grow to the current level of popularity. Apart from the Scenic Railway, the Waltzer, several carousels and most of the side stalls that were owned and operated by the Collins brothers the majority of the other major rides in the park were operated by another fairground dynasty family (since the mid-19th century), the Summers. George Summers was a major employer between the late 1950s and his death in the early 1970s when control of the firm was handed to George’s sons Robert and George Jr. Other rides were operated by John Corrigan from the historical showground family.
The Summers family ran the Big Wheel
, Dive Bomber, Moon Rocket, Revolving Jets and Tipping Paratrooper rides along with the Mirror Maze, two One Arm Bandit Arcades and several "Prize every time" booths.
For various commercial reasons during the 1990s, including the closure of the Butlins camp and a noticeable downturn in trade, the Collins family agreed to sell the Park’s freehold and it was snapped up by an eager Ken Rogers, the millionaire owner of the Hypervalue
Group, a highly successful chain of twelve "£1 an item" budget stores all over South Wales. Rogers had been attempting to buy the pleasure park for several years, mainly because his Hypervalue brand had been born twenty five years earlier in the form of a tiny market stall on a rental site near the main entrance to the Barry Pleasure Park.
Investment in Barry Island Pleasure Park continues in consultation with the local authority.
and a flight simulator
module.
as well as many children's rides.
During the winter of 2007, the very popular Superstar ride was removed and is now travelling the home counties with showman John Wall.
Over the following years the remaining park owned portable rides were removed completed in January 2011 with the removal of the Viper Rollercoaster and Waltzer. The Evolution currently remains at the park but has not operated since 2009. It's future is currently unknown as it is rumoured the trailer transports to move the ride were inadvertently disposed of by the park when the parent group went into administration.
Evolution, The Log Flume / Jungle water ride, Dodgem Track & Haunted Mine are the only attractions remaining onsite.
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
situated on the coast at Barry Island
Barry Island (Vale of Glamorgan)
Barry Island is a district, peninsula and seaside resort, forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc...
in the Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...
, about 10 miles south west of the capital city Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. The park opens annually at weekends from Easter onwards and daily during the school summer holidays, until the first weekend in September.
Barry Island contains a wide assortment of shops, bars and restaurants. The Pleasure Park was once famous for its Scenic Railway which dominated half of the site in the mid-20th century, but was partially destroyed in a strong gale during 1973 before being dismantled. Many of the scenic railway's beams were used in the building of the current Log flume
Log flume
A log flume is a flume specifically constructed to transport lumber and logs down mountainous terrain to a sawmill by using flowing water. These watertight trough-like channels could be built to span a long distance across chasms and down steep mountain slopes...
ride, which remains one of the parks most popular attractions.
The pleasure park has over thirty rides and attractions, including the Log Flume, Viper Rollercoaster
Roller coaster
The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...
, Sea Ray Pirate Ship, Dodgems and many others. Park entrance is free of charge, and ride tickets were available from the park ticket boxes.
Several Amusement arcade
Video arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
s are located around the pleasure park.
Barry Island Pleasure Park is part owned by Ian Rogers, who used to run Welsh discount chain Hypervalue
Hypervalue
Hyper Value Limited was incorporated in 1980 by Ken Rogers, the founder and then Chairman of the Hypervalue Group. It was best known for the discount retail stores that encompassed the whole of South Wales, extending into the South West of England and as far away as Southampton. As of late 2006...
before it ran into financial difficulties in recent years. In 2006, a company called Hilco UK Ltd who specialise in dealing with failing retail businesses assumed control of the ailing Hypervalue group and commenced disposing of various Hypervalue stores and settling accounts with the many creditors. Mr Rogers now owns part of the reorganised group, renamed Hypa Xtra.
Access to the Island
The only access to the Barry Island before 1896 had been either by foot across the sands and mud at low tide or by Yellow Funnel Line paddle steamerPaddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
when the tide was in. As a further incentive for visitors to come to Barry, an extension to the railway line, through a boxed in tunnel on a 250 yard long pier structure, was built from the mainland to a new station next to the main Barry Pierhead. This enabled visitors to board the paddle steamers that plied in the Channel to Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, Clevedon
Clevedon
Clevedon is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset, England...
and Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
. Once the rail link was completed the visitor numbers to the island exploded and one Bank Holiday weekend, over 150,000 visitors were recorded arriving on the island, and most of those came by train. Trains were arriving every ten minutes and by 5 p.m. were leaving at the same rate. The station opened in time for the August Bank Holiday week in 1896 giving the impetus for the development of further attractions on the island.
Visitor numbers explode
A measure of the growth in trade on the island is that in 1934 during the seven days of the August Bank Holiday week the official estimate of the number of visitors to the fairground was in excess of 400,000. It was recorded that 1,200 coaches and char-a-bancs, 8,000 motor cars, 3,000 motor cycles and over 10,000 bicycles had paid for parking or garaging during the week. In addition rail and public bus services had brought tens of thousands more to the Island. The 1938 Bank Holiday Monday saw a record crowd of well over 250,000 arrive or try to arrive at the island in a single day. Cars, buses and motor cyclists had to be diverted by harassed police to carparks at the Knap, Porthkerry Park, and even as far away as Sully and Rhoose when it was found that it was impossible to cram any more vehicles on the Island. By six pm the homeward trek began with a continuous slow moving line of cars and buses stretching all the way from Barry to the roundabout at Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff. A resident in Colcot Road reported that she had been kept awake by the continuous rumble of traffic passing her house till well after three am on the Tuesday morning.Early rides
Until 1897, there was no established fairground on the island apart from a few carousels, a set of swing-boats, hand made by Sydney White of Cardiff and a playground slidePlayground slide
Playground slides are found in parks, schools, playgrounds and backyards. The slide may be flat, or half cylindrical or tubular to prevent falls. Slides are usually constructed of plastic or metal and they have a smooth surface that is either straight or wavy...
set up on the main beach for each summer season. In that year the first major ride attraction was built. A Switchback Railway
Switchback railway
The original Switchback Railway at Coney Island was the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America. It was designed by LaMarcus Adna Thompson in 1881 and constructed in 1884. It appears Thompson based his design, at least in part, on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway which was a...
had been designed and built by the famous American coaster engineer LaMarcus Thompson specially for the Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
Empire Exhibition at Sophia Gardens
Sophia Gardens
Sophia Gardens , currently known as SWALEC Stadium under a naming rights deal, is a cricket stadium on the west bank of the River Taff in Cardiff, 1.6 kilometres north of Cardiff Arms Park. It was named after Lady Sophia Rawdon-Hastings...
in 1896, dismantled following the year-long exhibition and put up for sale. It was bought by the White family and installed at the western end of the beach edge on the present day site of The Olde Pavilion Café (named after the Pavilion Theatre, which had been situated amongst the sand-dunes), Barry Athletic Club's car park now stands where the Switchback ride ended.
With no competition the Switchback was a very popular and crowded attraction with Victorian holidaymakers and day trippers from the South Wales Valleys
South Wales Valleys
The South Wales Valleys are a number of industrialised valleys in South Wales, stretching from eastern Carmarthenshire in the west to western Monmouthshire in the east and from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the lower-lying, pastoral country of the Vale of Glamorgan and the coastal plain...
for fifteen years until a much larger Figure 8 roller coaster
Figure 8 roller coaster
A Figure 8 roller coaster is the generic name given to any roller coaster where the train runs through a figure 8 shaped course before returning to the boarding station. This design was one of the first designs to be featured in roller coaster design, along with the out and back roller coaster...
, also built by LaMarcus Thompson, opened on the edge of the beach level with the present pleasure park site in the spring of 1912. The Switchback’s trade declined, in competition with the more exciting Figure Eight and it only operated for another two years, finally closing in 1914 just as World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in Europe started and the number of holiday visitors dropped off dramatically. A military hospital was established on the island, near the fairground and thousands of injured soldiers recuperated on the beaches and sand-dunes.
A change of ownership
When in 1923 Barry Town Council replaced the previous rough tarmac shoreline roadway with a new brick and concrete Promenade, together with a more substantial road connection with the mainland constructed along a raised causewayCauseway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
, the fairground was relocated from the beach onto its current permanent site where the sand dunes were laboriously levelled and the site enclosed inside an iron railing fence. The White Bros (sons of Sydney White who died in 1938 at the age of 78), who held the beach concession, bid for and became the first tenants of the newly formed Barry Island Pleasure Park on land rented from the Whitmore Bay Pavilion Syndicate.
The White brothers remained in control of the park until the close of the 1929 season. That year the White Brothers had cheekily outbid Pat Collins, legendary showman from the famous Collins fairground dynasty, for his lease on a highly profitable and major pleasure park at Evesham
Evesham
Evesham is a market town and a civil parish in the Local Authority District of Wychavon in the county of Worcestershire, England with a population of 22,000. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon...
in the west midlands, that served day trippers from metropolitan Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
. When the brothers returned from a period of touring with their mobile fair rides and tried to renew their own Barry Island lease, the following year in 1930, they were stunned to discover that a furious Pat Collins had eked his retribution by outbidding them in turn on their home territory.
To make it perfectly clear why he had taken this step Collins, tongue in cheek, renamed the Barry Island Park as 'The New Evesham Pleasure Park', a name it carried until 1950. The dejected White Bros moved their operations across the road to a new and much smaller site, which they named 'White's Cosy Corner' and eventually established as a restaurant, an amusement arcade and a dodgem cars rink. Cosy Corner was destroyed by arson in 1999 and the shell demolished, but after several stalled planning applications the site was redeveloped and reopened in 2007 as a family entertainments centre.
Scenic Railway
In 1938, Pat Collins secured the contract to provide the major rides at Billy Butlin's fairground to be attached to the GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
Empire Exhibition. His younger brother John designed a Scenic Railway as a direct copy of the Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...
Scenic Railway also installed for Pat in 1932 (as a rebuild of the Erich Heidrich designed 1929 - 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition
Paris Colonial Exposition
The Paris Colonial Exhibition was a six-month colonial exhibition held in Paris, France in 1931 that attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense resources of France's colonial possessions.-History :The exposition opened on 6 May 1931 in the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts of...
Scenic Railway), but with slightly larger dimensions and at an enormous cost of £150,000 (£4,000,000 in today's terms). When the exhibition closed the ride was dismantled and shipped to Liège in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
where it was due to form the centerpiece of the planned International Water Exhibition. The ride was nearing completion in late 1939 when Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
undertook the surprise invasion of Poland and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out. Construction was immediately ceased and the ride dismantled again before being rushed back to the UK and rebuilt instead at Barry Island, on a site originally occupied by St. Peirio's Monastery (Barry Island was once known as Ynys Peirio).
With a track of just over a mile long and an initial climb and drop of seventy two feet it was the biggest wood built roller coaster ever erected in the UK. It was also one of the last such railway to be built in this country. Arriving on the island in the late autumn of 1939 the ride was built over the winter and was ready to be opened by Easter 1940. Along with the other traditional scenic railways the ride’s wooden framework was covered in rippled thick plaster and painted to resemble a rocky mountain landscape. The original colour scheme featured turquoise and purple rocks with white tips at the highest points to represent snow. In later years the ride was painted in various shades of brown and green before returning to its original turquoise. The massive ride only just fitted into the available space and ran almost the full length of the park, although the top entrance (giving access to the island’s railway station) had to be moved by several yards.
The Scenic Railway towered over Barry Island for the next thirty three years and remained a popular attraction throughout its operating life. The structure was partially dismantled, serviced and rebuilt in 1963 but unfortunately the ride had to be demolished in 1973 after being badly damaged in a severe winter gale and deemed uneconomical to repair. It was also becoming outdated and unable to compete with the newer and more modern high speed 'white knuckle' enclosed-steel-runner 360o looping thrill rides that were starting to be introduced.
Now located on the site where the Scenic Railway once stood is the present and much smaller Log Flume
Log flume
A log flume is a flume specifically constructed to transport lumber and logs down mountainous terrain to a sawmill by using flowing water. These watertight trough-like channels could be built to span a long distance across chasms and down steep mountain slopes...
ride built during 1980. Wooden beams from the Scenic Railway were salvaged, stored and reused in the construction of the Flume and other beams formed the basis of the Wacky Goldmine (now renamed the Haunted Mine).
Other wooden coasters
The scenic railway still in existence at Great Yarmouth Pleasure BeachGreat Yarmouth Pleasure Beach
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach is a historic free entry pleasure park located in the seaside resort town of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on the English east coast. The park first opened in 1909 and has been operating ever since....
is identical to the demolished Barry Island ride, only slightly smaller in its dimensions and incorrectly called a "rollercoaster". The only other surviving 1930s scenic railway in the UK is located in Dreamland Margate
Dreamland Margate
Dreamland Margate is an amusement park located in Margate, Kent, England. It is currently owned by Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company and is closed to the public...
(despite being a Grade 2 Listed Building the ride was mothballed and had been under imminent threat of demolition, since the 'Dreamland' park went into receivership in 2002. However in April 2008 the coaster was partially destroyed in an arson attack and will not be rebuilt until 2009 or 2010.
Changes at the Pleasure Park
Butlins
Butlins is a chain of large holiday camps in the United Kingdom. Butlins was founded by Billy Butlin to provide affordable holidays for ordinary British families....
holiday camp opened and provided the park with more regular customers than it had ever had before. With the increased income generated by Butlins campers the Collins brothers managed to purchase the freehold rights to the Pleasure Park in 1969.
Apart from the years immediately after the park opened, the busiest and most profitable period were the ten years spanning the opening of Butlins in 1966 and the mid 1970s when foreign package holiday
Package holiday
A package holiday or package tour consists of transport and accommodation advertised and sold together by a vendor known as a tour operator. Other services may be provided like a rental car, activities or outings during the holiday. Transport can be via charter airline to a foreign country...
s started to grow to the current level of popularity. Apart from the Scenic Railway, the Waltzer, several carousels and most of the side stalls that were owned and operated by the Collins brothers the majority of the other major rides in the park were operated by another fairground dynasty family (since the mid-19th century), the Summers. George Summers was a major employer between the late 1950s and his death in the early 1970s when control of the firm was handed to George’s sons Robert and George Jr. Other rides were operated by John Corrigan from the historical showground family.
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
, Dive Bomber, Moon Rocket, Revolving Jets and Tipping Paratrooper rides along with the Mirror Maze, two One Arm Bandit Arcades and several "Prize every time" booths.
For various commercial reasons during the 1990s, including the closure of the Butlins camp and a noticeable downturn in trade, the Collins family agreed to sell the Park’s freehold and it was snapped up by an eager Ken Rogers, the millionaire owner of the Hypervalue
Hypervalue
Hyper Value Limited was incorporated in 1980 by Ken Rogers, the founder and then Chairman of the Hypervalue Group. It was best known for the discount retail stores that encompassed the whole of South Wales, extending into the South West of England and as far away as Southampton. As of late 2006...
Group, a highly successful chain of twelve "£1 an item" budget stores all over South Wales. Rogers had been attempting to buy the pleasure park for several years, mainly because his Hypervalue brand had been born twenty five years earlier in the form of a tiny market stall on a rental site near the main entrance to the Barry Pleasure Park.
The Pleasure Park today
After finally securing ownership of the park Ken Rogers made sweeping changes and improvements, including the demolition and construction of the major rides. Sadly, in 2000 just as the park's fortunes been turned round, Rogers died suddenly and ownership passed to his son Ian. Following a recent restructure of the business, Hypervalue is now trading as Hyper Xtra and is currently owned 50/50 between Ian Rogers and Hilco UK, including the pleasure park. For the 2010 & 2011 Seasons the park has been let to an independent showman Vernon Studt.Investment in Barry Island Pleasure Park continues in consultation with the local authority.
A continuing Collins family presence
Pat Collins, the son of John Collins still maintains a presence on the Island and currently holds the lease for The Square on the Promenade where he has established four rides on the site, including a helter-skelter, children's go-karts, a trampolineTrampoline
A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes....
and a flight simulator
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...
module.
List of rides
- Evolution (Standing but not operating)
- Jumping Frogs
- Dodgems
- The Matterhorn
- The Terminator
- The High Roller
List of other attractions
- Hook A Duck
- Just Pennies Amusement Arcade
- Just Pounds
- Lucky Penny Amusement Arcade
- King Bite
- The Big Chippy
- KR's Cabaret Bar
- Dolphin Bar
Recent ride removals
During winter 2006 the pleasure park removed several rides, including:- Twister
- Rhythm Dancer
- Horse Carousel
- Vortex Round Up
- Magic Carpet
- Mini Transport Ride
as well as many children's rides.
During the winter of 2007, the very popular Superstar ride was removed and is now travelling the home counties with showman John Wall.
Over the following years the remaining park owned portable rides were removed completed in January 2011 with the removal of the Viper Rollercoaster and Waltzer. The Evolution currently remains at the park but has not operated since 2009. It's future is currently unknown as it is rumoured the trailer transports to move the ride were inadvertently disposed of by the park when the parent group went into administration.
Evolution, The Log Flume / Jungle water ride, Dodgem Track & Haunted Mine are the only attractions remaining onsite.