A FAIRGROUND attraction forced to close last year has revealed plans to reopen as a new venue.
Dingles Fairground Museum in Devon was home to vintage fairground rides and artwork.
Devon Fairground Museum is set to reopen as a whole new attraction[/caption]
The museum was forced to close last November[/caption]
Run by the Fairground Heritage Trust, they confirmed last March that they would be closing down, with the last entry in November.
However, it is set to be replaced by the new Dingles Fun Park.
The all-year, indoor attraction will have 20 classic fairground rides, including waltzers, dodgems and spinning tea cups, Devon Live reports.
A helter skelter and runaway train will also be inside, as well as a soft play area for younger kids.
The Carousel Cafe will serve snacks including burgers, chips and candyfloss.
The indoor attraction will be free to visit, but guests will have to buy tokens to use the ride, starting from £2.
Bundles will be on offer to offer reduced ticket prices.
It will open on February 15, in time for the half term holidays, and then every Saturday and Sunday up to Easter.
Tom Ellis, who owns the park, said they wanted to save the attraction after other sad closures nearby including Flambards and Dairyland Farm Park.
He added: “We don’t get the best weather in this country so we wanted to open something that will be primarily indoors, but there will be some outdoor rides like a paratrooper.
“There will be lots of old fashioned rides but we are not a museum or in any way linked to the previous attraction. It’s a fresh thing.
“We are offering free entry to keep it better value for everyone and have something in the area that is accessible for everyone. We have got 50,000 sq ft of space indoors.”
Longer term plans include themed events such as scarefests at Halloween and an ice rink and winter wonderland at Christmas.
Dingles Fairground Museum first opened 2007, as an expansion of the Dingles Steam Village Museum which opened four years earlier.
New rides in the fairground will include many of the classics such as waltzers and dodgems[/caption]
However, it closed on November 3, 2024, after citing both its remote location and the Covid pandemic as reasons for its closure.
They said at the time: “Since the pandemic, it is increasingly clear that with a limited season, a remote site and a scattered, rural local population the site is not viable as a stand-alone single-product museum attraction.”
Most of the items from the museum have since been relocated to the Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum in Tamworth.
The same month as Dingles closure, Flambards Theme Park also closed at short notice.
The Sun’s Katie Weston, who often visited the park during her childhood, said: “Who can forget collecting coupons for season tickets out of the newspaper for the school holidays, or the smell of medicines and varnished wood that greets you when peering into the Victorian time-capsule chemist shop?
“As one Cornish local simply puts it: ‘There goes our childhood.’”.
Other new attractions opening in the UK
- Therme Manchester – 2027
- Eden Project Morecambe – 2028
- Puy du Fou, Bicester – 2029
- Universal theme park, Bedfordshire – 2030s
Here’s another theme park that has been left abandoned after closing 25 years ago.
And the huge £2.5billion London Resort has finally confirmed it would no longer be opening in the UK.
The fairground will open on February 15[/caption]
