Richard Bannister

Wicksteed Park is fundamentally a holiday park for caravans, something that seems to be oddly popular in England. As a young child my parents brought me to an equivalent for reasons best known to themselves, as my understanding is that they didn't enjoy it much either. At any rate, flight timetables and an absence of traffic conspired to put us at the place a good hour before rides opened, allowing plenty of time to explore. Most of the park is large areas of playing fields, with a few small ride areas thrown into the mix. One such area contains the parks two coasters, Ladybird Coaster (#701) and Roller Coaster (#702). Neither were remarkable in any way, but what the heck, they represent two more of the coasters in England we had yet to ride!

 

As if one caravan park wasn't enough for a day, we found our way next to Billing Aquadrome. Wicksteed may have been lacking in refinement, but Billing could only be described as a dump, To call the place devoid of charm does a disservice to it; it features the absolute polar opposite of charm. Its sole coaster, Big Apple (#703), was the sole reason for visiting, and with it out of the way, we chose not to hang around.

 

While on the subject of charm, or lack thereof, we have Clacton-on-Sea, which felt like a carbon copy of Brighton. However, appearances can sometimes be deceptive; Clacton Pier had a decent selection of rides, pretty similar to that seen a few weeks ago at Barry's Amusements, and like that park it featured a rather good Haunted Mansion dark ride. From the outside it looked like the average fairground affair, but inside were scenes that, though low budget, were clearly built up to be as good as possible with the funds available. There was also a kiddie coaster, Speedy Gonzales (#704), and a powered Go Gator ride, though the latter was restricted strictly to children only.