Blackpool Pleasure Beach - mini archive 1

Amusement Park

Blackpool Pleasure Beach was founded by William. G. Bean in 1896. His aim was to "make adults feel like children again."

There were many owners of the park over the years, kept within the same family. At present William. G. Bean's Great-Great-Granddaughter Amanda Thompson took lead as the fourth generation manager of the park. As well as preserving the heritage, Amanda has also taken on new innovative ideas to keep up with the 20th Century. In 2010, Nickelodeon signed a £10.3m deal with the park to open the UK's only Nickelodeon Land. The replacement of old, worn out rides is also what keeps the park so popular.

However, the first ride brought to the park was the 'Sir Hiram Maxim Flying Machines' in 1904. It is the oldest ride that is still operating today. They were originally designed to be replica Maxim Biplanes, however as the years have gone on they have been modernised. This is an example of how Amanda Thompson is preserving the parks heritage; as although this is an old ride, it is still a popular attraction to the public so is in their best interests to maintain it.

In 1998, a man called Richard Rodriguez set a world record by riding the Big Dipper for over 1000 hours, to then double that record just 2 years later. However, in 2007 the Guinness World Records nullified these achievements as the rules were altered. His new record was set on the Pepsi Max Big One and the Big Dipper, standing at 405 hours 40 minutes. This created huge media publicity for the park.

Costume Archive

Since 1936 the park has kept costumes produced for performances put on there. Now owning over 10,000 handmade, made to measure costumes. The tour guide told us that nothing was ever thrown away, only deconstructed and reassembled into something new. 

This in particular caught my eye (photographed above). It is part of one of the main costumes in an ice show 'Hot Ice', performed in the park. Thinking about my next unit 'Passementerie Weave and Stitch' and looking at edges as is outlined in our brief, I am planning to use this as one of my starting points and see what ideas I can develop.