Welcome to the beautiful town of Longley, situated in the south of England. Longley has long been known for it's beautiful beaches, however in recent years the town has slowly lost it's appeal, and many local businesses suffering from poor tourism.



'The Boardwalk' has also suffered, at a time when the shops were packed and the beach was full. However recently it's not half as busy as before.



Amazingly, some companies have faith in this little beach town, with a well known hotel franchise opening a brand new 160 room hotel along side the beach and The Boardwalk.



Another company has also decided to take the chance and build a small shopping centre in the area, work has already begun!



And of course now we bring you to the main attraction for Longley. Longley Beach Theme Park...



Longley Beach Theme Park was opening in 1990, by Michael Baker, with the support of his family. However, over the last 22 years it hasn't exactly grown. It has been the same small 'theme park' now for six years without a single addition, and well... let's just say most of the rides could certainly use a lick of paint at the least. However, I have decided to follow this park as a sort of blog for the future, if it has one. I'm Ash Jones, and let me show you around my local 'theme park'.


The park has been struggling in terms of numbers for a couple of years now, with only two rollercoasters and a handful of small rides, it doesn't exactly scream excitement.


'Boomerang' is the biggest rollercoaster here, it was opened way back in 1992 and it has been rumoured as the next ride to close here for a few years now, but it's still very popular!


'Wild Mouse' is the other rollercoaster. It has been here since the park opened and was the first ride to be installed. In recent years it has really started to struggle, there are quite a few days each season where the ride is shut for 'maintenance'.


A couple more of the older rides here, both aren't exactly popular anymore.




Amazingly, the newest ride in the park is the Chairswing, which opened in 2006. Yeah, you can probably start to tell now how much the park is struggling.


'Slingshot!' Yeah... I never have, and never will go on this, with the state of the park, I'm surprised there hasn't been an accident on here already...


'Rot8' is another newish ride, it opened in 2005 replacing the older launched drop tower.


The Main Street is where you can find food, souvenirs, Dodgems and Toilets.


As you can probably tell, the park is tiny. However if the tourism doesn't pick up and Mr.Baker doesn't invest in the park, the size could be the least of it's worries. Only time will tell.

The way the houses are in the last pic remind me of Bumbly Beach

^ Or those ugly Korean apartments in SimCity 4!

Anyways, great work! I can't wait to see how this park will turn out.

This is looking pretty avocado awesome and interesting so far. Can't wait to see what happens next

Nice story!

July 2012

So I've been down to the park today, I'm not going to lie, it's really not looking good. Schools have now broke up for summer and still there isn't a large number of visitors.


Yes it's this bad... I arrived at just after 11am and this was the number of people entering the park...


The queue for 'Boomerang' was still pretty long, we queued nearly 15 minutes for it.


I don't like how quiet the park is getting. This is when it's the summer holidays, I dread to imagine what it'll be like come September.


I did however see one of the Park Managers having a look around today, first off he was looking at the guest services building, hmm, enough room for something new maybe?


God knows what was going on here, improvements? problems? possible replacements?


Not a massive update for you all, but hey, not exactly a lot going on at the park right now.

I'm definitely keeping an eye on what the manager was looking around for today, probably nothing knowing this place.

looK NICE

September 2012

Well, the summer has been and gone, and what I'm about to show you might upset you as much as it did me when I visited yesterday. Remember I said it was getting pretty bad? Well...


I went up to the park yesterday because it was my school teacher training day, I arrived to find the boardwalk looking, kind of empty...


Walking in to the park you can see just how empty it is. Although I have noticed the old customer service building has vanished.


I don't want to jump to conclusions, but could we actually finally see something getting done in this place?!


I do believe there were more staff in the park today than there were customers, the park can't continue like this surely?


Boomerang's queue was... erm... non existent. It was literally walk on all day.

The park has almost lost it's theme park feel, it feels more like a cheap, walk about for people now. People are walking around and they're not even that bothered about the rides, well... after an hour you've been on everything enough times to be fed up of the rides.

Anyway, I'll be visiting for the Bonfire Night Spectacular on November 5th, which is also the last day of the season, let's hope the numbers pick up for a great end to the season, the Bonfire Night Spectacular is usually quite popular.

November 5th 2012


Hey Guys,
I've just got back from the Longley Beach Theme Park Firework Spectacular. I was pleasantly surprised at just how many people came out to the park today. Sadly, the weather was dreadful today, but it didn't ruin the mood, everyone was so happy, even the staff were in a great mood, but that might be because it was the last day of the season?


I arrived at the park around 11am, although the boardwalk wasn't packed, there were a lot more people arriving compared to normal.


The view across the sea wasn't very pleasant.


It turns out the location of the fireworks was where the old customer services building used to be, I certainly hope that wasn't the only reason they've cleared out that space.


It was almost a little too busy...


The evening arrived, the rain stayed but the rides continued to run!





Once it was time for the firework show, almost all of the rides closed temporarily, this cause a little bit of a stir between some of the customers who were only really there for the late ride times. But anyway, the show began and all I can say is wow...























So that's it... End of the season, even though in general the park has slowly died this season, it must have had an amazing last day, the numbers alone were huge!

I can't wait to see what next season brings, even though I worry it could be the parks last. Only time will tell I guess... See you all soon!

A brilliant park and a really good story!
Keep it up. Can't wait to see more.