| Thoughts

Wicksteed Park was founded in 1913 by Charles Wicksteed as a showcase to demonstrate his playground equipment, today it is one of the last remaining free entry leisure parks in England and is probably the only to be owned and operated by a charitable trust

Split into four sections Lakeside, Arena, Playground and Fairground each have their own cluster of attractions but are separate by expansive sprawling lush parkland. Chugging through the heart of park passing the amazing scenery is the 1930s Wicksteed Park Railway

Arena contains a collection of rides on an oval of tarmac island in the middle of a go-karting track including paratrooper and roller coaster which offered a surprisingly smooth swirls and thrilling dips

Fairground is home to the slightly unusual duelling double pirate ship, dodgems, classic carousels and more modern rides such as rockin’ tug

Throughout the park are many playground equipment and leisure pursuits, Wicksteed is afterall more focused on this than amusement rides, boating lakes, cycle monorails, crazy golf, laser tag and nautic jets offer an all together more gentle pace of adventure

Finally the Lakeside section of the park is home to a sheer classic, the skip on the rope water chute plunges from the launch tower down an incline into the lake at speed, just as it has since 1926

I really enjoyed Wicksteed Park as a change from the usual theme park the whole place is set in some pleasant grounds and has some unique gems in its collection of attractions