Blackpool pleasure beach

[Roundthemoon]

I just visited Blackpool and I Had a nice time going around the beach and activities.

But honestly- Blackpool pleasure beach - what are they thinking! Some of the rides are so old and dangerous, I don't know how they are allowed at all.

It was the first time that I went .

I went on one ride, and it went extremely high. It was like an old fashioned rollrr coaster, but you were sitting on a horse. It's called steeple chase.

. There was the tiniest old fashioned seat belt on the horse, like a car seat belt. Except it was just a horizontal belt. The material of the belt looked old, worn and thin. And it didn't hold you on properly.

You had to grip with your hands onto the handle bars. This ride went extremely high and it was extremely fast and jerky, and i was nearly jerked out of the seat several times. If the ride jerked and you fell out of the seat , you would slip through the seat belt and you would fall a very long way down. I was holding on for dear life. I very nearly came off and fell once.

People were getting off the ride at the end and were crying and looking extremely stressed.

The guy running the ride laughed and said to us "you won't do that ride again in a hurry will you haha". Because he knew it was bad

I saw other rides in the park, where the metal holding the ride up looked completely rusted through.

I don't know how the park is allowed from a health and safety standpoint?

I love the Derby Racer. If you look closely at the bottom of the horses, you can see where they've made them static. They used to rock backwards and forwards back in the day.

A lot of the old rides were bought by smaller theme parks. The Space Invader was sold and operated under a new name for a few years after the Pleasure Beach dismantled it.

It used to be great when you could go into town and walk around the site. More often than not, you'd buy some ride tickets and get some food and drink. They lost that atmosphere when they started charging a flat rate to get in.

Ah I feel all nostalgic for my youth now, which is a nice distraction! I'm flying in a few hours and I really don't like flying.

That mouse rollercoaster sounds interesting. I was looking at videos of it on YouTube. It looks very rickety. That probably added to the fear

First went on Steeplechase with my grandad in the early 90s! Terrifying! 🤣 I’ve been on a fair few times since though! Wild Mouse was the worst though, not surprised that’s gone.
I remember when the ski slope ride crashed.

@Aplaceinthecold do you remember the spinning thing in the Fun House? Or was that just at Southport? Hang on to strangers for dear life while you span round and inevitably slid off into the mats. Absolutely loved it!

It would occasionally go on two wheels as it turned a certain corner! You'd sit in it one behind the other. It was OK if you were at the back because you'd feel wedged in,but if you were in the front it was scarier!

The Fun House burnt down in a fire sadly,but the horrible laughing clown that was outside the entrance survived.

There was something similar inside the Winter Gardens that was called Professor Peabody's and it had a similar layout if I'm remembering it correctly.

The Fun House did have one of those. I was too much of a wimp to go on it.

I fell off something in there and got really badly winded. I also remember it had a terrifying vertical slide 🤣

The Monster drop! I wouldn't go on that either 🤣
I stuck to Jungle Jim's in the tower, after visiting the aquarium underneath it.

Yes I do remember the spinner and the moving walkway you had to cross to get in.
That evil looking clown was horrible, I have a fear of clowns anyway.
Sad it burned down, probably that bloody clown.

The clown still lives but he’s somewhere near the back of the park if I remember rightly!

I got stuck on one of the hanging things in there and had to be rescued 🤣🤣

Yuk, glad I'm too old to go back.
The Monster Drop was brilliant though. At the bottom it had a couple of curves to slow you down. Still kept going through.

Looking at the video of the mouse rollercoaster, it reminds me of a rollercoaster that I used to go on in great yarmouth as a child.

That was hair raising. Nowadays they have the individual safety harness on rollercoasters.

On that old rollercoaster in Great Yarmouth, they would just pull the one metal bar down on me and my dad's laps.

So the bar stopped tightly on my dad's lap, and as i was much smaller, I wasn't secured very well at all. I remember I would be flying round the place on that coaster. And my dad would be holding on to me.

Great yarmouth is a nice pleasure beach too.

🤣🤣🤣 that's hilarious!!

I went to Blackpool on holidays with my folks in the early to mid 70s and my mum used to talk for years about how she thought she was going to die on the Steeplechase! So I can’t see how it only opened in 1977. We went to Spain in 76, and my folks divorced in 77, we hadn’t been to Blackpool for years by then.

Edit I am wondering now if it was the Gold Mine? I will have to ask mum!

Maybe it was the Grand National rollercoaster @Passwordsaremynemesis ?

Ah Blackpool memories.

Jungle Jim's and getting rescued by my dad as I got scared on one of the rope things.

Dawn of time ride in there as well. Was loads to do in the tower and my parents just left me to it while they watched the entertainment and got drunk!

Professor peabodys and the massive vertical slide. At first my dad used to hold me over it till I got brave enough to go myself until I burst my chin open on it. I was 7.

Going on the Pepsi Max for the first time at 9yo in 1994. I think I stopped breathing the whole way round, but then I started going on it myself and sat in the very front seat and had my hands in the air going over the first drop. If you sat at the back you got whipped over it.

The PlayStation when at the top you'd fly out your seat when it came back down. Again legs and arms out and it felt like flying. Before that was the monster.

Also the day I went on the Pepsi Max for the 1st time it crashed later that day. Think 9th July 1994 (from memory so may be wrong) because they had 3 trains on, so one going up lifthill, one going round and one coming into station but the emergency brakes went on and 2 trains crashed into each other.

Also the avalanche has crashed. We saw the train still on the tracks with the tarp over it.

I went on valhalla and something happened so all the lights came on. Ruined it a bit but never stopped me going on it.

Steeplechase just grip hard with your knees and hold on and you won't be thrown about.

Unfortunately not been in about 14 years so I don't have an opinion on the new rides however I'm dying to get back but the River Caves are closed, Goldmine is now Wallace and Gromit, Wild Mouse is gone, looks like PlayStation (iceblast) is going, Trauma Towers doesn't seem to be open and Gran Prix is gone.

Watched the video of it-you are SO exposed it looks really scary. Can't believe people are saying "well no one's fell off it yet", so if a drunk driver said he's never crashed his car yet you'd say "carry on then that's fine!". No one had fell out of that drop ride in Orlando until someone did. And the Drayton manor rapids were supposed to be safe too. There are usually lots of red flags and minor injuries before tragedy strikes.

Who's been watching The Shining , then?!

It burned down sadly!

This is a good watch for all of us feeling nostalgic at this thread! I loved Blackpool as a kid! My grandparents took me for a week every August from being 5 to 15. Precious memories!

Re-read my post then look up what it looked like 🙄 I’m well aware of what the grand national is thanks actually being from the area and having been to Blackpool many times

OP, I have only ever been to Blackpool once in the early 90s, went on that ride (Steeplechase) and have been telling folk about it ever since for exactly the same reasons as you!!

At one point I remember there being a steep drop below one of the corner turns - it wouldn't have taken much to fall off with all the jolting either.

Cannot believe it's still going - in exactly the same way, it seems!

What other rides do you like in Blackpool? I think valhalla is a good one

All of them! Especially the ones I went on as a kid. I remember my dad talking me into going on the Revolution and Pepsi Max when I was about 10. Now I do the same with DS!

We're going in half term at DS's request!