Website Under Construction!
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Desirée, and I am a coin operated ride enthusiast. I have loved these beautiful amusement machines ever since I can remember, but unlike most children, my interest actually grew as the years went by, and I became curious about the history behind them.
Way back in 1994, my mum decided to test her new camera by photographing my favourite giraffe coin operated ride outside the post office across the street. We made it our goal to collect photographs of me riding on 10 different rides... Then 20... Then 50... Soon the entire living room wall was covered in photographs! I ended up with well over 1600 photos, all taken throughout the UK, mainly in the 1990s. Even when I grew too big to actually ride them, we continued to photograph kiddie rides, first with myself standing next to them, and later I began picturing them alone.
I would get excited when I found a new ride to add to our collection... until I realised that the brand new sparkling rides were replacing my "old friends", some of which dated from the 1950s. One particular case that sticks in my memory is the story of the rides of Bognor Regis Pier. We first visited the pier in the summer of 1996 and it was packed with beautiful vintage rides. A giant carousel horse (as seen above), the "Dan Dare" spaceship, the Dalek, the Heli-Jet, Silver the Cowboy Horse... We returned in 1997 to find one modern Whittaker Bros. "Park Ranger" car. The place was dead. I was devestated. 40 years of history. Gone in one winter.
I was six years old, and knew I couldn't save the rides from being scrapped, but at least we could preserve their memory in photographs. As an older child, I began writing to current ride manufacturers for information and actually managed to get a few pamphlets from the 1970s and 80s from the likes of RG Mitchell and Whittaker Bros. A sales rep for RG Mitchell even gave us free tickets to the Amusement Trades Exhibition at Earl's Court, showcasing all the new rides for the following year!
Now modern technology is allowing me to make a website to share the nostalgia with all of you who care to remember our innocent childhood days. It's going to take a while to get everything online and I will probably have to upgrade to a bigger site before I publish it, but I do believe there should be an online tribute to the great people who made the kiddie rides all those years ago. It's proving difficult to find much information about the manufacturers, especially older companies like Edwin Hall & Co and Robinson Partners, but I'm working at it, piecing it together bit by bit.
If anybody has any information or photographs that they wouldn't mind sharing on the site, please contact me! There are no examples of many of the older rides left these days, so every photograph is very precious. The site will mainly focus on rides manufactured and distributed throughout the UK from the 1950s-90s, but I hope to expand to include all kiddie rides at some point. I don't have much information on rides outside of the UK at all as of yet, so I would be extremely grateful for any help you can offer.
Thanks for reading and please check back once the website goes live - without our memories, future generations would have no idea what they're missing out on!
Way back in 1994, my mum decided to test her new camera by photographing my favourite giraffe coin operated ride outside the post office across the street. We made it our goal to collect photographs of me riding on 10 different rides... Then 20... Then 50... Soon the entire living room wall was covered in photographs! I ended up with well over 1600 photos, all taken throughout the UK, mainly in the 1990s. Even when I grew too big to actually ride them, we continued to photograph kiddie rides, first with myself standing next to them, and later I began picturing them alone.
I would get excited when I found a new ride to add to our collection... until I realised that the brand new sparkling rides were replacing my "old friends", some of which dated from the 1950s. One particular case that sticks in my memory is the story of the rides of Bognor Regis Pier. We first visited the pier in the summer of 1996 and it was packed with beautiful vintage rides. A giant carousel horse (as seen above), the "Dan Dare" spaceship, the Dalek, the Heli-Jet, Silver the Cowboy Horse... We returned in 1997 to find one modern Whittaker Bros. "Park Ranger" car. The place was dead. I was devestated. 40 years of history. Gone in one winter.
I was six years old, and knew I couldn't save the rides from being scrapped, but at least we could preserve their memory in photographs. As an older child, I began writing to current ride manufacturers for information and actually managed to get a few pamphlets from the 1970s and 80s from the likes of RG Mitchell and Whittaker Bros. A sales rep for RG Mitchell even gave us free tickets to the Amusement Trades Exhibition at Earl's Court, showcasing all the new rides for the following year!
Now modern technology is allowing me to make a website to share the nostalgia with all of you who care to remember our innocent childhood days. It's going to take a while to get everything online and I will probably have to upgrade to a bigger site before I publish it, but I do believe there should be an online tribute to the great people who made the kiddie rides all those years ago. It's proving difficult to find much information about the manufacturers, especially older companies like Edwin Hall & Co and Robinson Partners, but I'm working at it, piecing it together bit by bit.
If anybody has any information or photographs that they wouldn't mind sharing on the site, please contact me! There are no examples of many of the older rides left these days, so every photograph is very precious. The site will mainly focus on rides manufactured and distributed throughout the UK from the 1950s-90s, but I hope to expand to include all kiddie rides at some point. I don't have much information on rides outside of the UK at all as of yet, so I would be extremely grateful for any help you can offer.
Thanks for reading and please check back once the website goes live - without our memories, future generations would have no idea what they're missing out on!