A History Of Pleasure Island - 1993 to 2013
Today on bank holiday Monday May 27th 2013, Pleasure Island Family Theme Park Cleethorpes celebrates it's 20th anniversary. The park opened on May 27th 1993 and is still going today on May 27th 2013. This article is a celebration of Pleasure Island and will take you through all the known history of the park, including what rides and shows they had, the owners of the business and much more...
Before Pleasure Island...
The land that Pleasure Island now sits on was previously home to Cleethorpes Marineland Zoo and before that, a stock car racing stadium. Cleethorpes Marineland Zoo was founded in 1966 by Pentland Hic. An interesting fact is that the zoo was ran as a satelite Zoo to Flamingo Park, which went on to become Flamingo Land Theme Park. An interesting coincidence as Pleasure Island was ran as a sister park to Flamingo Land until 2010 and the owner of Pleasure Island is Melanie Wood, who is the sister of Gordon Gibb who runs Flamingo Land. Both Flamingo Park and Cleethorpes Zoo later went on to be owned by Scotia Leisurec
The zoo was home to many animals, some which are still remembered by members of the public today. The variety of animals available that we know of included brown bears, chimpanzees, sea lions birds, a tiger, a popular hippopotamus called Hercules, wolves, rhinos, lions, seals, penguins, pelicans, orangutans, crocodiles, wallabies, a killer whale and African elephants, whose elephant ring was re-discovered recently this year when workmen were digging up land for the construction of the new Furry Friends Farm attraction for Pleasure Island and came across the old ring, which had been filled in after the zoos closure. A joke associated with the zoo was that the animals were always trying to escape and succeeding. Members of the public recall times when a group of wolves escaped, also a wallaby apparently got out and wandered down North Sea Lane and another member of the public described a beaver/platypus type creature also going on the run too. The zoo also had some near miss incidents with some of the animals as a former zoo keeper remembered the time he was nearly squashed by one of the elephants called Tanya. The elephant, who was known for her bad attitudes, pinned the keeper against the wall of her elephant house as he was trying to chain her up for the night. Apparently he touched her leg accidentally, making her jump and turn on him, however, she was forgiving and after he called her by her name released him, leaving him with a bruised face and ribcage and a bit of elephant claustrophobia. The keeper also remembered the time he was bitten by one of the zoos crocodiles too. The zoo was officially opened on May 29th, 1965 by Johnny Morris, the television personality, along with an orangutan. Also during the zoos run it was visited by Doctor Who star Tom Baker... |
The beginning of the end of the zoo occurred in 1975 when the Cleethorpes council purchased it and turned it into a safari park, with a consequence of replacing all the real animals with fibre glass versions. This safari park then began to decline in popularity and eventually closed in 1977, with the fibre glass animals sold on. This was the end of the Cleethorpes Zoo altogether. And after that the site was purchased by another company with the intent of making a new seaside theme park, Pleasure Island...
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The beginning of Pleasure Island
It all began in 1977 when the former site of Cleethorpes zoo was sold to Pleasureworld, a division of RKF Entertainment. The company announced that a new theme park would be built on the site as a sister park to the theme park Pleasurewood Hills in Lowestoft, which still exists today. Construction on this new park began in the 1980's, however, during the early 1990's RKF Entertainment went into receivership and in 1991 the site was sold to Robert Gibb, the owner of Flamingo Land Theme Park in Yorkshire, which had previously been associated with Cleethorpes Marineland Zoo, which was a satellite zoo to Flamingo Land originally. The park was half completed and so Robert Gibb decided to continue the project to complete and open Pleasure Island Theme Park. Construction was completed in 1992 and the park officially opened to the public on May 27th 1993.
In 1995 Robert Gibb passed away after being in a car accident. So both Pleasure Island and Flamingo Land were handed over to Robert's wife Maureen and children GOrdon, Melanie and Vicky. Melanie Wood, who is now the |