Lightwater Valley

Lightwater Valley
Location	North Yorkshire, England
Coordinates	54.175975°N 1.570444°W / 54.175975; -1.570444
Website	www.lightwatervalley.co.uk
Owner	Heritage Great Britain PLC
Opened	Summer 1969
Operating season	March to November (open longer for as of 2012)
Area	175 acres (708,000 m²)
Rides	over 40 total 5 roller coasters 2 water rides

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 also features an adjacent shopping village and restaurant.

The complex is operated by Lightwater Valley Attractions Limited, a division of the holding company Heritage Great Britain PLC. The park attracts approximately 325,000 visitors per year.

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. This was an enclosed roller coaster themed on the dwellings of the sewer rat. It accurately gave the illusion of an underground experience.

In 1990 construction began on the world's longest rollercoaster, costing £5.2 million and over 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length, The Ultimate was opened to the public in 1991. Additional rides and attractions were added throughout the decade.

Moving on from family ownership

Robert Staveley handed the park over to his children, Amanda and James in the mid 1990s, but 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, effectively running 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, 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 three groups - Ultimate Adventures, Mega Adventures and Mini Adventures. 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.

2012 Season

On 23 December 2011 it was announced that 2012 would see one new ride added to the park in the form of 'Wave Rider', a junior pirate ship which will replace the outgoing 'Magic Wheel'. 2012 will also see Lightwater Valley commit to a major rebrand which encompasses a new logo, slogan, TV advert and park map. For 2012, the park's annual Halloween event, Frightwater Valley, will be extended to five days, with a separate event for the firework display, Nightwater Valley, the following weekend.

Ride Key

Colour	Target Audience
	"Ultimate Adventures"
	"Mega Adventures"
	"Mini Adventures"

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	The Ultimate	1991	A steel coaster that holds the record as Europe's longest roller coaster.

Ultimate Adventures

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
6	Eagle's Claw	2004	A KMG Afterburner ride.
7	Whirlwind	2010	A Mondial Topscan. One of only 3 in the uk!
8	Black Pearl	2011	A inverting ship in Skeleton cove. Arrived for the 2011 season from Loudoun Castle.
9	Black Widow's Web	2001	A HUSS Enterprise ride.
10	Skyrider	2006	A jazz-themed Chairoplane type ride.
11	Trauma Tower	2004	Small family orientated space shot tower ride.
12	Powder Kegs	2011	Based on Gunpowder Barrels which spins around. Part of Skeleton Cove.

Mega Adventures

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
13	Dodgems	2007
14	Carousel	2008
15	Falls of Terror	1995
16	Wild River Rapids	2009
17	Flying Camels	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport.
18	Skate Karts
19	Buffalo Express	2002
20	Lightwater Wheel	2008	A traditional Ferris wheel providing views of the park and surrounding countryside.
21	The Flying Cutlass	2011	Replacement for The Wave. Part of Skeleton Cove.
22	Pirate Swinger	2011	Part of Skeleton Cove.
23	Skull Rock	2011	Part of Skeleton Cove.

Mini Adventures

#	Name	Opened	Brief Description
24	Swan Boats
25	Lightwater Express	1979
26	Spinning Teacups
27	Mini Ferris Wheel
28	Wave Rider	2012	Replaced the Magic wheel.supposed to open in 2011 as part of skeleton cove but now located in the forest area
29	Noah's Ark	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport
30	Dragon Boats	2007	Relocated from Pleasureland Southport
31	Lady Bug
32	Magic Marc's Magic Shows	2005
33	Young Fun		Selection of junior rides: Space Pirates, Clownaround, Human Cannonball, Mirror Maze

The Ultimate

The Ultimate, the main attraction at Lightwater Valley.

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 four 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 two are still in service today.

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.

Accident

20-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

#	Name	Opened	Closed	Replaced by	Brief Description
1	Soopa Loopa	1988	1994	Falls Of Terror	A looping roller coaster manufactured by Soquet.
2	Viper/Zyklen	1996	2001		A City Jet / Jet 400 type ride manufactured by Schwarzkopf.
3	Batflyer	1996	2002		A steel suspended roller coaster.
4	Toad Hole	19??	2006	Lightwater Wheel	An semi-enclosed water chute.
5	Rat Ride	1987	2009	Raptor Attack	A Schwarzkopf Wildcat Type roller coaster.
6	The Wave	1990	2010	The Flying Cutlass	A swinging ship which closed because of a new pirate ship (The Flying Cutlass) opening in Skeleton Cove.
7	Grand Prix Go Karts	19??	2010	Skeleton Cove	Traditional go-kart track.

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 "Ultimate" trains on the first lift hill.

• 

  "Whirlwind" in action.

• 

  "Eagle's Claw", a KMG Afterburner ride.

External links

• Lightwater Valley Home Page
• Valley Mania - The Official Lightwater Valley Fan Site
• Lightwater Valley images on ARDcoasters.com
• Visual & Informative look into Lightwater Valleys rides.
• September 2010 interview with Marketing Manager
• Lightwater Valley at ThemeParks-UK