History
The land on which the theme park was built used to belong to the Peel family but the mansion (built in 1790) had been reduced to mere ruins when the British Army requisitioned it as a training post during World War II. After the war had ended two entrepreneurs, George and Vera Bryan, borrowed 6000 pounds and bought the land (and the 17 huts that the army had constructed during their stay). They opened a small amusement park with just a handful of children´s rides in 1949. In 1954 Mrs Molly Badham (who later opened the nearby Twycross Zoo) joined forces with the Bryans and opened a small zoo to compliment the fun park. The amusement park grew slowly in the 1950´s, 60´s and 70´s but in the late 80´s the park began to install bigger and more thrilling rides to attract customers from all over the United Kingdom. The result is that Drayton Manor Theme Park is today the 6th most popular theme park in the UK. The park is still being managed by the Bryan family.
Read more about this topic: Drayton Manor Theme Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Only the history of free peoples is worth our attention; the history of men under a despotism is merely a collection of anecdotes.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)