Pleasurewood Hills

Infobox Amusement park
name = Pleasurewood Hills


image_size = 357px
location = Lowestoft, Suffolk
location2 =
location3 = England
opening_date = 1982
previous_names = New Pleasurewood Hills
season = March to October
owner = CDA Parks
rides = 30
coasters = 3
water_rides = 2
other_rides = 25
homepage = [http://www.pleasurewoodhills.com/ www.pleasurewoodhills.com/]

Pleasurewood Hills is a theme park located on a 59 acre site in Corton, near Lowestoft in Suffolk, England. The park contains various attractions, including three rollercoasters and other thrill-type rides. Its mascot is called Woody Bear - the image of which was Changed in 2006 to a Sailor Type Look; in contrast to fitting in with a new Lowestoft maritime theme.Some rides include:
*Wipeout - Boomerang roller coaster
*Snake in the Grass (formerly Rattle Snake) - Steel roller coaster
*Enigma (formerly Cannonball Express) - Medium steel roller coaster

History

The park was created by local entrepreneur Joe Larter in 1982 as a small American-themed family attraction, containing a miniature railway, Cine 180 and adventure playground. A pattern of yearly expansion was established, with the addition of one or two major new attractions and general improvements taking place every winter.

During the late 1980s a controlling interest in the park was sold to RKF, a property development company. RKF then built a number of new leisure attractions including two Sea Life centres (Great Yarmouth & Hunstanton), a Ripley's Believe It or Not (on Great Yarmouth seafront) and the new convert|9|mi|km|sing=on Bure Valley Railway (in Aylsham). They also started work on building a second Pleasurewood-Hills-style theme park in Cleethorpes. RKF went bankrupt in early 1991 and this forced all their leisure attractions into receivership, and these were all later sold to new owners. Some of the former Pleasurewood management staff subsequently took control of The Bygone Village at nearby Fleggburgh.

For a few years in the mid 1990s a deal was struck with Noel Edmonds to convert the old Haunted Theatre into Crinkley Bottom Castle. The park also featured live appearances by Mr Blobby and, on a more limited basis, Noel Edmonds himself.

The park continued in this vein until 1996/7, when it was purchased by Leisure Great Britain, a large caravan park operator. They owned the park until 2000, when Peter and Peggy Hadden, who had been connected with the park for many years, bought it with the intention of reviving its flagging fortunes. It was at this time that the name was changed to 'New Pleasurewood Hills'.

In 2004, another change of ownership took place when Grévin & Cie, a French leisure group, purchased the site. The park's name reverted to its original form and in early 2005 the owners announced their intention to spend £3 million on improvements to the park.

The first thing that the money was spent on, was the repainting and rethemeing of the rides, meaning that various rides where renamed, but the first major investment was the parks first inverting coaster "Wipeout" which had its track transported from the recently closed "American Adventure" and the old cars were scrapped and new ones were bought from Walibi World, which recently closed their Boomerang ride "La Via Volta". The ride has a surfing theme.

Problems

A couple of problems have hindered the development of Pleasurewood Hills. One is its geography. The location of the park on the east coast of England mean that its immediate catchment area is too small to allow it to compete with larger, more geographically central theme parks such as Alton Towers or Thorpe Park. Thus, the park has never, and is very unlikely to ever, expand to the size of these parks.

Secondly, a period of neglect took place from 1996 to 2000 which has proved hard to recover from and has damaged the park's image. Combined with a natural decline from the heyday of the theme park in the UK during the 1980s, in which novelty value played a large part, this has meant that Pleasurewood Hills has struggled to survive over the last decade.

However, the investment announced by the new owners in 2005 seems to presage a period of renewal and hope for the park. A part of this investment is a new 'Boomerang' (renamed 'Wipeout') steel roller coaster bought from The American Adventure Theme Park.

napshot

The profile of the park in 'UK Theme Parks A Market Report' published by Tourism Research & Marketing in February 1990 includes the following data:

A 59 acre area (with plans to expand to 136 acres). Family centre with 51 rides and attractions, including:

*Ladybird Roller Coaster
*Sky Leap
*Haunted Castle: opened 1988 costing £0.5 million, 480-person capacity, 12-minute show
*Fantasy Canal Ride
*BMX track
*Inflatables
*Ball baths
*Magic Music Hall show
*Woody Bear character
*Roving clowns and cowboys
*Fast food outlets
*Self-service barbecue area

External links

* http://www.pleasurewoodhills.com - Official site.
* http://www.rcdb.com/pt290.htm - Facts and timeline used for this article
* http://www.unofficialpleasurewood.co.uk - Unofficial website