Originally Posted by
Kev
Are there any stories about the attractions being genuinely haunted?
Not as far as I know, although there is a fair bit of history to the park. This is what I have on my site (mainly stolen from the SPL official site and Wikipedia though!!)...
The first amusement park in Southport was built in 1912 in King's Gardens, and included classic rides such as a figure-eight rollercoaster and helter skelter. Expansion necessitated a larger site, and in the 1920s the park moved to it's current location on the waterfront, and in the 1930s acquired the name 'Pleasureland'.
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Various new attractions were brought to the park including various rollercoasters, most notable the Cyclone wooden rollercoaster which remains to this day. Wartime meant a break in operations, the site being used by the Air Ministry for storage, but after the war things picked up again and further regular improvements were made to the park.
Many new features such as a boating lake, bowl slide, 'Sky Ride' cableway and mirror maze were added over the decades, and in 1999 the Tizer sponsored Traumatizer rollercoaster was built. Costing £5m, the Traumatizer was the UK's faster and tallest 'suspended looping' coaster, and became Pleasureland's star attraction.
However, on September 5th 2006 Pleasureland closed for good as a result of 'adverse trading conditions'. It was clearly no longer economical to run the park, and so closure was the only option. Staff were given their notice and the gates closed. Since then dismantling work has begun, most notably of all with the removal of the Traumatizer, probably in a bid to regain as much lost capital as possible.
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