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The United Kingdoms, third most visited theme park, Thorpe Park, England, Part 1.
By Mark on December 11, 2009
Welcome to Thorpe Park in Chertsey, Surrey, England, U.K. It is a theme park, for the whole family with plenty of things to do, from riding on rollercoasters, to getting wet on water rides, this is the park for you. Being built in 1979, this park was actually built on a gravel pit, it was then partially covered in water as they wanted to make Thorpe Park a water themed park. That is why you will find a handful of water rides, lakes there. The first ever largest roller coaster to be put there was the Colossus, but it did not arrive until 2002. As with alot of the british theme or amusement parks the Tussauds Group, were bought out by Merlin Entertainments, who now operate the park on a lease from Nick Leslau.
This is the third most visited theme park in England and the U.K, behind Alton Towers and Pleasure Beach, and is also the 13th most visited in Europe.
This is a panoramio picture taken of the Colossus rollercoaster at Thorpe Park.
This is a panoramio picture taken of Neptunes Beach at Thorpe Park.
Now for all you historians out there, here is a little bit of history about Thorpe Park. Has I said earlier it is situated on a gravel pit which was a former quarry, it is on the border between the English towns of Chertsey and Egham in the county of Surrey south-east England. What happened was the then owners of Ready Mixed Concrete Limited, were asked to flood the pit after the quarry’s closure in the late 1970s, it with then the intention to open an educational leisure park.
It finally happened on 24th May, 1979, when the now themed park was officially opened by Louis Mountbatten who lent his name to the Mountbatten Pavilion, a large domed structure located at the entrance to the park.
Right at the beginning the park was an educational site, which included exhibitions, such as Model World, with famous structures from around the world, and of course the Mountbatten Pavilion housing a standing aircraft display.
This is a panoramio picture taken of the water ride, Rumba Rapids at Thorpe Park.
This is a panoramio picture taken of a Fireworks display at Thorpe Park.
Then in 1998, the park was bought and taken over by the Tussauds Group, who at that stage were also the owners of Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures. Due to this reason, the group then decide to make Chessington World of adventures a family park and Thorpe Park to become a more of Thrill-ride park, and that is what happened.
Some of the best known rides at Thorpe Park are listed below.
Nemesis Inferno, Europe’s first inverted roller coaster with interlocking corkscrews.
Colossus, the world’s first ten-inversion roller coaster.
SAW: The Ride, the world’s first horror movie themed roller coaster and the world’s steepest freefall drop roller coaster.
Stealth, a launched roller coaster which accelerates to 130 km/h (80 mph) in approximately 1.8 seconds.
X:\ No Way Out, the world’s first and only backwards in the dark roller coaster.
Loggers Leap, the largest log flume in the UK from 1989–1993 and from 2005–present).
- Learn about Thorpe Park on Wikipedia:
- Learn about Theme Parks around the world on Wikipedia:
- Learn about Amusement Parks on Wikipedia:
- Find Thorpe Park on Google Maps:
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