Lightwater Valley

Lightwater Valley

File:Lightwater Valley logo.png Lighwater Valley logo
Location	North Yorkshire, England
Coordinates	54.175975°N 1.570444°W / 54.175975; -1.570444
Opened	summer 1969
Owner	Heritage Great Britain PLC
Operating season	March to October
Area	175 acres (708,000 m²)
Attractions
Total	over 40
Roller coasters	5
Water rides	2
Website	www.lightwatervalley.co.uk

Lightwater Valley is a theme park in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. The park is perhaps best known for being the home of Europe’s longest rollercoaster - The Ultimate.

Lightwater Valley was founded by Robert Staveley and initially evolved from a small farm attraction. The park features around 40 other rides and a birds of prey centre and other animal displays and attractions and is also home to retail outlets and restaurants.

The complex is operated by Lightwater Valley Attractions Limited, a division of the holding company Heritage Great Britain PLC.

The park currently attracts approximately 330,000 visitors.

Park information

History

The boating lake at Lightwater Valley theme park

In 1969 Lightwater Valley started life as a small self-pick fruit farm attraction which was quite popular with the local community. The farm was owned by the Staveley family, who had been in ownership of the land way back until 1516 when Cardinal Wolsey handed the grounds over to John Staveley. The farm was dealt a crippling blow in 1976 as a severe drought was brought to the region, having a huge effect on the strawberry crop which was the main source of the farm's revenue. Later that year a lake was excavated to help reduce the effects of a future drought, the very same lake that is at the park today.

Lightwater Valley Theme Park was born in 1987 after Rat Ride was built. The ride was considered to be one of the best in the country and over the years more and more rides were added and the park was officially established and up and running.

In 1990 construction began on the world's longest rollercoatser. Costing £5.2 million and over 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, The Ultimate was open to the public in 1991. The Ultimate reached incredible speeds and set staggering drops over 100 feet (30 m). Lightwater Valley was flying high but sadly, it had reached its limit. Robert was sent plunging into debt and decided to hand the park over to his children, John and Lynne Staveley.

Over the years many more rides and attractions were added but didn't match standards set by earlier additions. Eventually there was a change of ownership from a private family firm to Queensborough Holdings, who bought the park for £5.2 million in 1997. Queensborough Holdings were also in ownership of Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park at the time, which resulted in both parks sharing the same mascot Woody the Bear. The parks were somewhat 'sisters' and operated under Leisure Great Britain of which Queensborough Holdings financed. However, the new owners put the park back up for sale within 11 months of buying it as they decided to re-focus their business in the current market. However, no bid was accepted during the following few years. The park was given a new lease of life in February 2001 when Queensborough Holdings handed ownership over to Heritage GB, a company which was formed by Queensborough Holdings Chairman Kevin Leech and his son Allan. Therefore, the park was simply owned by a re-branded company of its previous owners. Allan Leech bought £4.75 million worth of shares in Lightwater Valley Attractions Ltd which was the new holding division for the park, in other words they ran the park while Heritage GB financed the initial buyout using Allan's money from Ball Investments Ltd.

Attractions

Lightwater Valley has over 40 rides and attractions, ranging from thrill rides such as The Ultimate for the brave and daring, Falls of Terror for the more modest thrillseekers and small rides such as Dragon Boats for the park's young visitors. Lightwater Valley categorise their attractions into 3 groups - Jaw Droppers, Whipper Snappers and Nippers. This helps establish what rides are suitable for visitors and the expected height restriction for each. The theme park has a total of five rollercoasters, two water rides and various flat rides.

In 2009 the park opened the Wild River Rapids, a family water ride. The ride is rented from Mellors Amusements. They have also removed the Hornet's nest mid season, after failing to get the ride to operate correctly after two years of operation.

Ride Key

Colour	Target Audience
	"Thrill Ride"
	"Family Ride"
	"Children's Ride"

Roller Coasters

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
1	Raptor Attack	2010	Indoor dark themed rollercoaster. Originally operated as the Rat Ride from 1987 - 2009.
2	Caterpillar	2003	A small gentle rollercoaster that traverses a variation of a figure of eight track.
3	Ladybird	1993	A family coaster.
4	Twister	2001	A spinning wild mouse rollercoaster.
5	Ultimate	1991	Europe's longest rollercoaster fun for all!

Jaw Droppers

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
6	Eagle's Claw	2004	A Yellow KMG Afterburner named after the famous Lightwater Valley birds of prey resident, Wingnut
7	Black Widow's Web	2001	A Black HUSS Enterprise
8	Skyrider	2006
9	The Wave	1990	A large pirate ship attraction.
10	Trauma Tower	2004	Small family orientated space shot tower ride.
11	Whirlwind	2010	Sends you round in a frenzy of upside down twists and turns

Raptor Attack

Whipper Snappers

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
12	Grand Prix Go Karts	1980
13	Dodgems
14	Carousel
15	Falls of Terror	1995
16	Wild River Rapids	2009
17	Flying Camels	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport.
18	Skate Karts
19	Buffalo Express
20	Lightwater Wheel	2008

Nippers

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
21	Swan Lake Boats
22	Amazing Maze
23	Lightwater Express
24	Spinning Teacups
25	Mini Ferris Wheel
26	Magic Wheel
27	Noah's Ark	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport
28	Dragon Boats	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport
29	Vintage Cars
30	Lady Bug	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport

- Magic Marc's Magic Shows - Gator Park (selection of junior rides)

Future

The park recently revealed details of the expected shape of the park over the next few years on the popular Valley Mania fan site. Amongst these plans are proposals to extend The Ultimate rollercoaster to regain its record breaking status, to replace the ageing Rat Ride, and to buy a permanent version of the popular Wild River Rapids. Further plans suggest that the park may be split into two themed areas - Lightwater Valley for young and aged visitors, with more sedate rides, and Darkwater Valley to house the rides intended for thrill seekers. It was later confirmed that Lightwater Valley will be getting two new rides. Raptor Attack, a replacement indoor coaster for the Rat ride. Also there is Whirlwind, a topbuzz 2 ride previously owned by Alan Crow travelling in fairs.

The Ultimate

Main article: Ultimate (roller coaster)

The Ultimate was designed by Big County Motioneering and the park’s original owner Robert Staveley. Construction began in early 1990, taking 18 months to complete. The ride was constructed by in-house workers and British Rail who used track supplied from Tubular Engineering, after BCM were sacked due to track problems. The project was over a year behind schedule due to track alterations and trouble with train wheels.

The ride finally opened on 17 July 1991 by Frank Bruno. When opened, it was the world’s longest rollercoaster at 1.5 miles (2.4 km), taking over 5 minutes to ride and costing £5.2 million. The Ultimate has 4 trains in all named after park staff. They are called, Tony’s Tornado, Ron’s Rocket, Mick’s Meteor and Jim’s Jet.

However, only the latter 2 trains are used in present day. The trains also used to have over the shoulder restraints until 1992 when they were removed and replaced with lap bar restraints.

The Valligators

"The Valligators" are three green alligator-costumed entertainers who currently act as the park’s mascots and entertain the younger visitors. They are better known as Sally, Harry and Baby Al. They were introduced to the park in 2001 to mark the beginning of a new era following Heritage GB takeover of Lightwater Valley.

Bird of Prey Centre

The Bird of Prey Centre is separate from the theme park and is home to over 60 birds including owls, vultures, falcons and even Britain’s largest golden eagle. Guests are allowed to handle and even feed the birds as well as see them fly alongside the purpose built centre. The centre is also home to many reptiles with daily feeding shows.

Accident

Twenty year old Gemma Savage died on 21 June 2001 following an accident the previous day when two carriages collided on the "Treetop Twister", a spinning Wild Mouse roller coaster, which had opened in May that year. Police decided not to prosecute a maintenance worker, who claimed that he had only received an hour's training on that ride and had not seen its manual. Faulty wiring had also caused a malfunction on the ride. In October 2004 Deputy Coroner John Sleightholme at Skipton Magistrates' Court ruled death by misadventure.

Lightwater Valley's owners and electrician Eric Butters admitted breaching health and safety laws at Leeds Crown Court on 14 November 2006. Lightwater Valley Attractions Ltd was charged with failing to ensure the health and safety of riders, Butters was charged with failing to ensure safety through his work. Both pleaded guilty. A French manufacturer, Reverchon Industries SA, was convicted of two charges of failing to ensure the ride's safe design and construction.

Past Attractions

• Soopa Loopa 1988 - 1994 - A looping coaster manufactured by Soquet.
• The Viper/The Zyklen 1996 - 2004 - A City Jet / Jet 400 type ride manufactered by Schwarzkopf.
• BatFlyer 1996 - 2002 - A Suspended coaster manufactered by Caripro.
• The Orbiter 1998 - 2003 - A Chair-o-plane ride previously named Heatwave manufactered by Schwarzkopf.
• The Beaver Rapids 2000 - 2001 - A Log flume manufactured by Reverchon.
• The Grizzly Bear 2004 - 2008 - A Z47 Coaster manufactered by Pinfari.
• The Voyager - A Double Inverter Ship
• The Hawk - 1997 only - A Caged swinging ship, 360 loop.
• Sewer Rat (roller coaster)1987 - 2009 - A Schwarzkopf Wildcat Type coaster.
• Whirlwind 2010 - 26th September 2010 - A colorful Mondial Top Scan open for a limited time at the peak season of 2010.

Gallery

• 
  Rides near the entrance of Lightwater Valley.
• 
  "Swan Lake Boats" in the boating lake of Lightwater Valley.
• 
  "Trauma Tower", a Space Shot ride.
• 
  "The Wave", a pirate ship ride.
• 
  One of the two "Ulimate" trains on the first lift hill.
• 
  "Whirlwind" in action.
• 
  "Eagle's Claw", a KMG Afterburner ride.

See also

• Incidents at European parks

External links

• Lightwater Valley Home Page
• Heritage GB Home Page
• Lightwater Valley pics on ARDcoasters.com
• Theme Park Extreme
• Review
• Visual & Informative look into Lightwater Valleys rides.

Associated websites

• Valley Mania The Ultimate Lightwater Valley Guide.
• Valley Mania Forums The Ultimate Lightwater Valley Community.