Drayton Manor Theme Park - History

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:

    Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.
    Willa Cather (1876–1947)

    If man is reduced to being nothing but a character in history, he has no other choice but to subside into the sound and fury of a completely irrational history or to endow history with the form of human reason.
    Albert Camus (1913–1960)