Frontierland Western Theme Park was a theme park at
MorecambeMorecambe is a resort town within the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England. As of 2003 it has a resident population of about 45,000...
,
LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. However, Lancaster is still considered to be the county town...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, situated on Marine Road West, which operated from 1909 to 7 November 1999, with a final year consisting of only travelling rides in 2000. Frontierland originally operated as
West End Amusement Park,
Fun City and
Morecambe Pleasure Park from 1909 to 1986 before being transformed into
Frontierland for the 1987 season in an attempt to defeat dwindling visitor numbers.
In 2000, Frontierland was officially closed down by Geoffrey Thompson, managing director of
Pleasure Beach BlackpoolPleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, exceeding more than six million visitors a year. The park is a privately funded business and is owned, managed and directed by the...
. All of the rides, excluding the
Polo Tower and
Log Flume were demolished or dismantled and sold on. The
Rattler was moved to the
Pleasure Beach whilst
King Solomon’s Mines and the
Chair-O-Planes were moved to
Pleasureland SouthportNew Pleasureland, previously named Pleasureland, is an amusement park located in Southport, Merseyside, England. The original park operated from 1912 to 2006 and was closed by the parent Blackpool Pleasure Beach company due to lack of returns after investment...
, which later closed down in 2006. Unlike
Pleasureland,
Frontierland was never resurrected and the site remained wasteland until 2007, when three outlets were built. These large outlets were positioned at the back of the park, an area that previously featured the
Stampede,
Tea Cups and
Parrots ride.
Opening in 2008, the three outlets consisted of a
HomebaseHomebase is a British home improvement store and garden centre, with 348 stores across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It is well known by its green and orange colour scheme. Its main competitors are B&Q, Focus and Wickes and in Ireland B&Q, Atlantic Homecare and Woodies...
,
JJB SportsJJB Sports plc is one of the United Kingdom's leading sports retailers. Since early 2009 JJB has been in financial difficulties in talks with banks to secure its future.- History :...
and Next. Further plans are in the pipeline however, the retail park project isn’t a fast moving project. As a result of lack of interest, the retail park, previously proposed in 2001, didn’t make it off the drawing board until six years later. Early 2009, work began at the front of the site to remove the
Log Flume which leaves the
Polo Tower as the last remaining ride. It has been confirmed that the
Polo Tower will remain on site due to the tower being a listed building.
A brief history of the frontierland site can be found at the Morecambe Today website.
End Of The Ride For Morecambe Frontierland
Brief History
The Thompson family, owners of
Pleasure Beach BlackpoolPleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, exceeding more than six million visitors a year. The park is a privately funded business and is owned, managed and directed by the...
purchased the park in 1909, when it was called
West End Amusement Park. The owners, who also owned
Pleasureland SouthportNew Pleasureland, previously named Pleasureland, is an amusement park located in Southport, Merseyside, England. The original park operated from 1912 to 2006 and was closed by the parent Blackpool Pleasure Beach company due to lack of returns after investment...
, which closed in 2006, introduced new rides each year until visitor numbers began to dwindle. A number of tactics were used to save the park, however most failed eventually. Rides such as a 150ft
Big Wheel were introduced but were quickly taken down due to neighbouring complaints.
In 1986, visitor numbers were at an all time low so Geoffrey Thompson, owner of the park decided to give the ten acre site a complete overhaul. This involved turning the park into
Frontierland which would hopefully see guests flock back to Morecambe. This worked for a few years but once again, numbers dropped, so in 1989, the
Sky Ride was introduced – a cable car system that would allow people to fly over the park and out over the promenade before turning around and going back to the station. The ride was initially a big success and once again, visitors flocked to the park. In 1991, visitor numbers were back down to their low standard and investment wasn’t being put into the park so freely as two previous attempts had backfired massively.
In 1992, Geoffrey Thompson was about the make his biggest investment ever at
Pleasure Beach BlackpoolPleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, exceeding more than six million visitors a year. The park is a privately funded business and is owned, managed and directed by the...
by introducing the 235ft tall
Pepsi Max Big OneThe Pepsi Max Big One is a steel roller coaster located at Pleasure Beach Blackpool in the United Kingdom. The ride was originally manufactured by Arrow Dynamics, a now defunct steel coaster manufacturer, and is sponsored by the soft drinks firm Pepsi, under their brand of Pepsi Max...
, a £12 million hyper coaster. Once ride which had stood at Blackpool for over ten years were in the way of these plans. With the construction of the Big One due to start late 1992, the
Space Tower was to be removed. So, in 1993
Frontierland received the
Space Tower, a 150ft gyro tower. The ride was initially going to be placed at the back of the park but with the sponsorship from
Polo Mints in the bag, the ride was positioned on the front. This resulted in a boost in visitor numbers but nowhere near what
BlackpoolBlackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. Situated along the coast of the Irish Sea, it has a population of 142,900, making it the fourth-largest settlement in North West England behind Manchester, Liverpool and Warrington...
was about to get from opening their new rollercoaster.
The
Polo Tower was the last major investment at
Frontierland, however fans of the park believe that Geoffrey Thompson had no intention of shutting the park down, as in 1993, with the installation of the
Polo Tower, Geoffrey Thompson signed a contract allowing a telephone mast to be placed at the top of the tower – this contract allowed the company to have their telephone mast on the tower for twenty years meaning that the
Polo Tower cannot be taken down until the contract has expired resulting in a possible removal of the tower in 2013.
Decimation
Frontierland began to close in 1998, after eighty-nine years of service. The decimation of the park was due to take three seasons to complete with the back of the park going first. As the park began to shrink at an alarming rate, rides from the park began to appear all over the world. However, the decimation of
Frontierland was never fully completed as the
Log Flume and
Polo Tower remained on site. In 2009, the
Log Flume was removed whilst the
Polo Tower continues to remain in situ.
In 1998, when the park began to downsize, the first ride to leave was the
Stampede rollercoaster which had opened at the park in 1988. It was a standard rollercoaster found at many parks, and its current location is unknown but many believe the ride to have been scrapped like so many other attractions. The ride was originally from
Pleasure Beach BlackpoolPleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, exceeding more than six million visitors a year. The park is a privately funded business and is owned, managed and directed by the...
, where it operated as the
Cyclone. The ride was removed in 1987 to make way for the
Avalanche. Another ride at the top of the park to be removed was the giant
Tea Cups which had been located at the park for many years. The
Tea Cups were extraordinary in both their size and in the fact that its base was entirely made of concrete and was sunk into the floor so that guests could simply walk onto the ride instead of having to step up onto it. The ride was removed in 1998, with the floor being broken up and the cups being moved to
Pleasureland SouthportNew Pleasureland, previously named Pleasureland, is an amusement park located in Southport, Merseyside, England. The original park operated from 1912 to 2006 and was closed by the parent Blackpool Pleasure Beach company due to lack of returns after investment...
where they were never used. They were disposed of in 2006, when
Pleasureland closed down, however some remain on the
Southport ZooSouthport Zoo was a zoological garden in Southport, Merseyside, England run by husband and wife Carol and Douglas Petrie. It was located close to the amusement park Pleasureland...
site hidden in the undergrowth.
In 1999, the park began to close the lower section of the park by removing rides such as the
Ghost Train and
Runaway Mine Train, which was later moved to
Pleasureland as
King Solomon's Mines. Other ride removals included that of the
Slide,
Train and various other small attractions. The year 1999 was also the last year of operation for the
Texas Tornado wooden rollercoaster which had operated for 62 years. The ride remained dormant throughout the last few months of the 1999 season and the first half of the 2000 season until the ride was unceremoniously demolished late 2000. The year 1999 was the last year that
Frontierland operated as a permanent theme park which rides that made it such being demolished, removed or made ‘standing but not operating’.
In 2000, most of the rides had been removed with the exception of the
Texas Tornado, which was due to be demolished, the
Polo Tower, the
Rattler and the
Log Flume. The
Rattler was later removed from the park and put into storage. It wouldn’t be used again until 2004, when it was introduced as the
Big Apple at
Pleasure Beach BlackpoolPleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, exceeding more than six million visitors a year. The park is a privately funded business and is owned, managed and directed by the...
, but it only stayed there for one season. In 2007, it was introduced at
New Pleasureland where it has remained to present day. Towards the end of the 2000 season, all the rides, shops and facilities such as toilet blocks were removed. One of the last rides to be removed was the
Sky Ride, a cable car system which took riders from the back of the park, across the front and over to a turn-around on the promenade. The current location of this ride is unknown. By the very end of the 2000 season, only the
Polo Tower and
Log Flume remained on site along with a giant pile of rubble. The park’s entrance was sealed off using construction fences and the park remained in this state until 2007.
In 2007, the back section of the park became home to three outlet units which had been constructed by Morrisons supermarket. The outlets opened in 2008 and have remained open since. The construction of the outlets meant to removal of the trees which once surrounded the
Texas Tornado rollercoaster. The company behind the development has announced plans to extended the outlet village to the front section of the park which, initially allowed theme park fans to believe that both the
Polo Tower and
Log Flume would re-open as part of the development, and speculation was fuelled even further when scaffolding appeared around the
Polo Tower mid-2008 but the ride’s cabin was removed and the tower was ‘tidied up a bit’.
In 2009, the
Log Flume ride, which had survived ten years after the park officially closed down, was removed from the site leaving the
Polo Tower as the sole remaining remnant of the park. The future of the site is pointing towards a Freeport village much like the one at
FleetwoodFleetwood is a town within the Wyre district of Lancashire, England, lying at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 26,840 people at the 2001 Census. It forms part of the Greater Blackpool conurbation. The town was the first planned community of the Victorian era...
, but progress is slow and with an eyesore such as the
Polo Tower fronting such a development, it looks unlikely to happen. It has since been revealed that the Polo Tower cannot be removed from the site until 2013 as the telephone mast on top is contracted to such date.
Notable Rides
- Cyclone roller coaster
The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...
(Later re-named the Texas Tornado) which was designed by Harry TraverHarry Guy Traver was an American engineer and early Roller Coaster designer....
and built in 1937 for the Paris World ExpositionThe Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held in 1937 in Paris, France. The Musée de l'Homme was created at this occasion.-Exhibitions:...
and moved to the park in 1938
- Runaway Mine Train – Wooden wild mouse. Moved to Pleasureland Southport
New Pleasureland, previously named Pleasureland, is an amusement park located in Southport, Merseyside, England. The original park operated from 1912 to 2006 and was closed by the parent Blackpool Pleasure Beach company due to lack of returns after investment...
in 2000.
- Log Flume – Demolished in 2009.
- Polo Tower – Still in situ but not in use. Cabin as been removed as of 2008.
- Noah’s Ark – Classic attraction. Demolished 2000.
- Ghost Train – Classic ghost train attraction. Demolished 1999.
- Funhouse – Demolished 1999.
- Sky Ride – Removed 2000.
- Rattler – Moved to Pleasure Beach Blackpool
Pleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom, exceeding more than six million visitors a year. The park is a privately funded business and is owned, managed and directed by the...
and later New Pleasureland.
- Stampede – Removed 1998.
Although the park has closed and most of the land is now waste ground, the Polo Tower still stands although the rides have not been operational since 2000 and have yet to be removed. The Polo tower (originally from Blackpool) also acts as a telephone mast, and was left in situ, partly because a mobile phone mast is installed on it. The tower has remained dormant, along with the Log Flume however, early 2009 work started on side to remove the water-based ride.
See also
- Frontierland
Frontierland is one of the "themed lands" at the many Magic Kingdom-style parks run by Disney around the world. Themed to the American west in the 1800s, Frontierlands are home to cowboys and pioneers, saloons, red rock buttes and gold rushes. Every instance of Frontierland has a Big Thunder...
(Disney themeparks)
- List of amusement parks in the United Kingdom
External links