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History: Neil Saunderson, writing on the
Tunnel of Laffs website, provides some
background to this ride: "The Haunted Swing was
first introduced at Coney Island, and uses the
method of illusion in a most effective and ingenious
way, given its early invention date. Many new rides
built in Continental Europe are updated versions of
this ride, the Palaisdu Genie at Six Flags in
Belgium being an example."
The Haunted Swing operates on a
very simple, but convincing, premise. The riders,
seated in the Haunted Swing, slowly swing backwards
and forwards, gathering height, until the swing
eventually rotates them 360 degrees...or so it
seems. In reality, the swing just swings; it is the
room that rotates around the swing, giving the
illusion of swinging much harder and travelling much
further than you really are.
Helters Ltd (a Blackpool
Pleasure Beach-owned company which operated a number
of rides at Pleasureland) added the 1001 Mirrors and
Haunted Swing attractions to Pleasureland in 1961,
on the former site of the Dive Bomber/Moon Rocket.
In 2003, Geoffrey Thompson
opened ‘Abdullah’s Dilemma’, a revamp of the old
Haunted Swing and 1001 Mirrors, combined into a
single attraction. This was similar to the way two
almost identical rides were combined into
'Impossible' at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
There is currently only one
haunted wing operating at a UK amusement park
today, that ride being at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The haunted swing tradition continues,
however, with modern versions currently operating at
Alton Towers and Drayton Manor theme parks, making
this surviving Haunted Swing even more historically
important.
Dimensions: NA.
Importance:
Represents a rare amusement park ride. Dreamland
featured one of these attractions, called the 'Rock
and Roll House' and it is hoped that we can recreate
this in Dreamland.
Latest: Now in
storage for use in the Heritage Park.
If you have any further
information on the history of this ride, please
email
nick@savedreamland.co.uk. |
