Blackpool Pleasure beach

I was reading today that Blackpool may shut some of their rides and lay off staff due the down turn in visitors numbers. If they made it FREE entry to the fair like it used to be then more people would go. It can cost a family of four between £130 - £200 dependent how you book to enter the fun fair[If you paid for the rides you could use then more people would use the fair

Even if I could take my great grandchildren there, which I couldn't, I would not pay those prices. It should be pay as you go. Money is tight for a lot of young parents and they can't afford to pay out that kind of money.

When it was free loads of grandparents used to walk down and take the grandkids there for a few hours and spend money in the process , I know because we did it all the time and many thousands did too. Once she started to be a money grabber and charge entrance fees a tremendous amount of revenue and good will was gone for ever from the people of Blackpool.
As for laying off jobs that just means more Polish people eon the dole.

peebee.
I would gladly have given money to my grandson's family to treat them to a few rides on the fair. But no way will I be ripped off. If I was able to take them myself, which I'm not. I still would have avoided the fairground. It's the owners who are driving people to take the kids to cheaper destinations. They can't spend what they haven't got.

I don't think Southport Pleasure Beach is much different. That used to be free entry as well and, every few months or so in the summer, we'd go for a day out and go on some rides as well. Each year that passed, an entry fee would be imposed and, the last time we went, it was £5 entrance fee and a car parking charge.

Anyway, we went in, not knowing that wrist bands had to be bought to go on the rides, and I asked my partner if he'd ever been in the River Caves, which he hadn't; so we got into the queue with money in hand to pay. As it came our turn the operator asked about the wrist bands which we knew nothing about, but offered to pay. Kind soul that he was said not to worry, and allowed us to get on the boat.

Sounds like it's now become an expensive trip to Blackpool for a day out, and Blackpool will suffer financial losses because of it. Such a pity.

Grottsville Major ..down and outs deadlegs illegals etc etc...shut it all for me.

Where will I live then BB.

I have never liked Blackpool and though they have spent millions doing the sea front up it still has that sickly smell of burgers and hot dogs. Also if you step back one street it looks like a war zone boarded up guest houses abandoned cars and generally run down areasI used to ride through Blackpool and once I got to the Norbrick Castle a hotel which was past its best then I would not open the windows till I got to the turn off at the Funfair.We much preferred Lytham/St Annes

Mollie, southport learned the hard way, they imposed the £5 charge and then it shut down after the crowds fell away, Silcocks bought the park and reintroduced, free entry, now its reopened and doing ok in summer, We go there on nice Summer days and enjoy elvis in the outside bar nesr the carousel, There are several Elvis impersonators So, be warned, the Real one only comes out when He choses ,

That's good to know, Tom. Was never keen on Blackpool anyway, except to go in Madam Tussaud's and those sorts of places. Southport has always been much cleaner anyway.

Tom, just saying, Silcocks don't own Southport fair.

Southport

Good picture of Silcock's Arcade at the Pier Entrance, Gaffer. That's about half a mile from Southport Fairground.
You know, the one that doesn't belong to Silcocks?

Norman Barrie Wallis owns Southport Fair

Peter P

If correct, tonker will not be happy that you know more than himself!

OC not hard to find out I just googled it and it give me Company house and Tonker never said who owned it. He just posted that Silcock's did not own it so he would have known the name of the owner The Blackpool pleasure beach is owned by the Thompson Family and they once were the owners of Southport Fair

PeterP

Prior to the ownership of Norman Barrie Wallis, it was owned by Silcocks who bought it from the Thompson family in the late sixties!

Peebee...Down the road in Lytham...

I'm not ready to live in 'Gods Waiting Room' yet.
Used to work at a undertakers in Ansdell which is next door to Lytham and the tightest buggers on planet earth dwell therein. Once we went to the flats near the white church and his butler let us in. The first thing he said was "Have you got any cheap damaged or seconds coffins for my wife". On the other hand in the poor areas of Liverpool the people wanted top of the range solid oak coffins and treatment, no expense spared, It' a funny old world init.

Liverpool poor area ??...they are majority of thieves drug dealers and shoplifters...money no object

Nice here in Richmond N. Yorks.....( Rishi's Seat)

Have Silcocks ever owned Blackpool Pleasure Beach or Southport Pleasureland outright?

I think they may just provide the rides and possibly pay rent to the owner of the premises?

CC

Silcocks

Well I remember going on Silcocks rides on Southport fair.Like someone has mentioned the rides were probably rented by the owners.In the 50/60s these places were heaving in the summer with kids going from clubs and folk having a day out.I have no idea if the Silcock family ever owned it.

I think that they may have just rented pitches as they were / are a travelling fair with their small rides being portable and easy to dismantle.

You can't easily dismantle a big dipper and a grand national and put it on Wigan market square

Maybe Tonker can tell us who owns it?

CC

See my post to you above.

Gaffer.

I have read the post and there is no reference to Silcocks owning either Blackpool Pleasure Beach or indeed, Southport Pleasureland.

From what I can gather Blackpool Pleasure Beach has been in the same family, Thompson's, for 100 years or so?

If you google the ownership of Southport Fair Silcocks have never owned the fair.It started with a member of the Thomson family and then was sold to Norman Barrie Wallis

If you knew how a travelling fair works, you’d understand it better.
And to keep adding the word “family” to things doesn’t help either.

Ie: here’s a clue - you can buy Heinz’s beans in Asda, but Heinz’s doesn’t own Asda.

I doubt Arthur's worried about who owns it ,owned it or rented it

Arthur is well down the Silcock list.