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Big Dipper
facelift part of Pleasure Beach 2010 investment
1 February 2010
Pleasure Beach Blackpool's
iconic 1927 Big Dipper roller
coaster is to receive a £500,000
facelift as part of a £2.25m
investment in the park for the
2010 season. The main tower and
dome has been fully renovated
and the station has been
upgraded with new murals on the
walls and a new onion-shaped
fountain (pictured right).
The park's new ride for 2010 - a
state-of-the-art Dodgems, which
replace the Superbowl Dodgems
that were demolished last year -
will have new cars inspired by
singing superstar Robbie
Williams's tattoo designs. This
will be located in the former
Whip building, below the
Revolution.
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The new onion-shaped fountain in
the Big Dipper station. Photo:
BPB Blog |
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Also new for
2010 is a Sculpture Garden next to the main
entrance to the park, designed by David
Harber and Natasha Webb. The gardens
comprise of a series of cascading water
features, reflective portals, glass walls
and steel structures. More on the new
attractions for 2010 on the
Pleasure Beach's website. |
Pleasureland Haunted Inn destroyed in fire
31 January 2010
Pleasureland's Haunted Inn was
destroyed on Friday night in a
devastating fire. The Inn is the
oldest surviving original
attraction at Pleasureland and
the oldest of only five crooked house
attractions remaining in the UK
(the others being at Adventure
Island, Blackgang Chine, MW's
Amusement Park and Ocean Beach
Pleasure Park).
The Haunted Inn originally
opened in 1949 as the Crazy
Cottage and was renamed the
Haunted Inn in 1988. The
attraction was open as part of
New Pleasureland in 2009, its
60th year.
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Above: Pleasureland's Crazy Cottage prior to its
1990s revamp. |
Save the Edge!
29 January 2010
Paultons Park in Hampshire has
launched a campaign to save one
of its most popular rides. The
Edge ride was opened for the
start of the 2009 season and was
the first ride of its type in
the UK. The park has recently
received an enforcement notice
having had a planning
application to retain the ride
refused in October last year.
The park has now submitted a
second planning application for
Edge which differs from the
original in that The Cobra ride
has been excluded as permission
for this was granted by NFNPA by
a unanimous vote in December
2009. It also includes an
assessment of other potential
sites for the ride, concluding
that the current location is the
best place for the ride.
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How to make a difference:
View application details here
Support the application here |
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With the
application to keep Edge scheduled to be
heard by the Planning Committee in the near
future the park is asking visitors to
support their application to retain the ride
in its current location. More about the
application can be found
here, including all the supporting
documentation.
Click here to formally support the
application on the New Forest National Park
Authority's website. More on the campaign at
the
Paultons Park website. |
Spooks!: The
History of Ghost Trains and Other Dark Rides
24 January 2010
Amusement park nostalgia website
themagiceye takes a step
back in time in an article
called
Spooks!: The History of Ghost
Trains and Other Dark Rides.
Ghost trains, haunted gold mines
and fantasy boat rides have been
a mainstay at amusement parks
and travelling fairs for as long
as any living person can
remember. But very little has
ever been written about their
history and how they have
evolved over the years. So take
our seat, keep your hands in the
car at all times and – remember
– you might just be scared out
of your wits!
Read on...
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Amusement
park history to be debated at top conference
24 January 2010
This year's
Institute for Archaeologists Conference will feature an entire morning
session devoted to amusement park heritage. Featuring several speakers
on the subject, including John
Walton, Nick Laister and Ian
Trowell, the session is called
'Fairgrounds for Debate: celebrating the heritage of amusement parks'.
It will run from 9.45am to 12.45pm on Thursday 15 April at the Southport
Theatre & Convention Centre at Southport, Merseyside. Places can be
booked online and
it is possible to book for the Thursday only.
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Fairground
transport greetings cards
16 January 2010
Now available from Joyland Books
is a new
pack of 8 fairground transport
art greetings
cards with four different designs in each pack (two of each
design). The cards feature a
range of vehicle types, covering
what are now the classic British
made lorries of the past, and
also some of today's modern
transport - catering for all
enthusiasts. These are strictly
limited editions of only 1,000
cards worldwide.
View the different card designs
here...
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Happy New Year
from Joyland Books!
1 January 2010
Happy New Year
from all of us here at Joyland Books.
Joyland Books is 10 years old this year and
to celebrate we will be bringing you a
special feature on the history of the
website, the people who created it, and some
of our most memorable moments, including our
pick of the best books and DVDs of the last
decade.
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Elsewhere in
the amusement park world,
The Dreamland Trust launched its new
plans for an amusement park of thrilling
historic rides at an event in Margate called
'I Dream of Dreamland'. Success followed the
Trust in 2009, with announcements that they
had secured several million pounds of
funding from both Heritage Lottery and the
Government's Sea Change programme. The year
ended with the appointment of Jonathan
Bryant as Project Director for Dreamland
along with three other members of staff to
take the project forward. The Trust also
acquired the Junior Whip ride from Blackpool
Pleasure Beach.
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The Joyland
Books amusement park nostalgia website
themagiceye continued to expand last year
with some truly fantastic articles,
including:
The Lost Rides of Blackpool;
The Old New Brighton;
Rites of Pasaje, and the two part
travelogue of Welsh seaside amusement parks,
Welsh Wonders.
And the main
Joyland Books website remains as strong as
ever, with well over 8 million hits for 2009
(excluding the Forum). We look forward to an
even more exciting 2010! |
Welsh Wonders! |
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