Lightwater Valley


Lightwater Valley is a theme park in North Stainley, North Yorkshire, England. The park is home to Europe's longest roller coaster, The Ultimate.
Lightwater Valley was founded by Mr. Robert Staveley in 1969, and was owned and is now operated by Livingstone Leisure Ltd, having been purchased by them for £6.3 million in 2017.
The park features approximately 30 rides and attracts approximately 500,000 visitors per year.

Park Information

History

In 1969, Lightwater Valley began as a small self-pick fruit farm attraction. The farm was owned by the Staveley family, who had owned the land since 1516. In 1976, the farm was affected by drought, which resulted in the excavation of a lake to help reduce the effects of a future drought. The lake's popularity instigated the transition of the farm into a tourist attraction. Early attractions included an adventure playground, canoes, rowing boats and a circus. Later on, Staveley introduced a petting zoo, BMX bikes, Go Karts, a pitch and putt golf course, a hell slide and a water chute. During this time, the park was advertised as a country park and self-pick fruit farm. A range of different fairground rides were introduced into the entrance areas of the park and the Lightwater Shopping Village was established.
The Lightwater Valley Theme Park was born when the Rat Ride was built in 1987. Robert Staveley wanted to expand on the family market and provide something for the thrill market whilst still being suitable for the younger audience. At the time, Robert Staveley's wife was a keen protector of the country park status and did not like the idea of having a roller coaster spoiling this. After much discussion, she permitted the construction of a roller coaster as long as it was out of sight. To accommodate his wife's wishes, Robert decided that he would bury the roller coaster underground and it became based on the dwellings of a sewer rat. The ride closed in 2009 for refurbishment and re-opened as Raptor Attack for the 2010 season. The ride was constructed by blasting large amounts of rock and capping the hole and exposed sides with a large barn style building. The ride attracted much attention, nearly doubling gate figures and paving the way for future developments including the park's first looping coaster, the Soopa Loopa, in 1988 which featured two vertical loops and a backward facing ride car.
Robert Staveley used the success of the Rat Ride to persuade his wife that a 'proper' roller coaster be built. He had liked the idea of having a roller coaster coming down the valley at the top of the park, but was faced with the challenge of getting people to the top of the valley to board the train. His wife suggested that the train be sent out to the top and then returned with the aid of two drops. In 1990, construction began on the world's longest roller coaster, costing £5.2 million and over in length, The Ultimate was opened to the public in 1991.
Additional rides and attractions were added throughout the decade, including roller coasters such as The Viper, The Batflyer, and The Ladybird. Water rides such as the Beaver Rapids log flume and Splash Falls were opened. A number of rides, including the Beaver Rapids and the Heatwave, were opened on short term leases instead of being purchased.

Ownership

In the mid 1990s, Robert Staveley handed the park over to his children, Amanda and James. However, in 1997, there was a change of ownership from a private family firm to Queensborough Holdings, who bought the park for £5.2 million. The park was sold because it had run into financial difficulties following the heavy expenditure on The Ultimate.
Queensborough Holdings was also in ownership of the Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park at the time. Both parks were operated by Leisure Great Britain, part of Queensborough Holdings. 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. However, no bid was accepted during the following few years. The park was given a new lease of life in February 2001 when Lightwater Valley was bought by Ball Investments who used Heritage GB to manage the operations.
The new ownership brought about rapid investment in ride offerings and brand imaging with new logos, mascots, websites and rides such as The Treetop Twister and Black Widow's Web in the first year, followed by rides such as The Octopus, The Eagle's Claw, The Grizzly Bear, The Caterpillar Coaster, Trauma Tower and Skyrider.
Following the unfortunate incidents of 2001, guest figures plummeted from their 1990 averages. Continual improvements to the family offering, brand imaging and marketing have resulted in vast improvements to customer satisfaction and attendance figures. Some of these improvements included: investment in the re-theming of the Sewer Rat to Raptor Attack, the introduction of the first themed 'area', 'Skeleton Cove', with five new rides along with new family friendly attractions such as the Angry Birds Activity Park, Eagles Creek Farm, the Vintage Car Rally and Jurassic mini golf course. Successful events such as the ever-popular annual Frightwater Valley Halloween event, Pirates & Princesses weekend, and UK bungee jump days have attracted record gate figures.
During the late 2000s, talk began of the potential development of Lightwater Resorts. Initial planning permission for holiday caravans and log cabins was rejected by Harrogate Borough Council due to concerns about the impact on traffic and local businesses. The park later re-designed and re-submitted their planning permission for 106 log cabins which was then granted.
In June 2017, the park was sold to attractions operator Livingstone Leisure Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
After Livingstone Leisure Ltd bought the park, the decision was made to close the Lightwater Country Shopping Village at the end of the 2017 season.
The Bird Of Prey Centre was closed at the end of the 2018 season and did not return for 2019.

Attractions

Lightwater Valley has over 30 rides and attractions, ranging from thrill rides such as The Ultimate, Splash Falls, and small rides designed for children such as Dragon Boats. Lightwater Valley now categorizes their attractions into three groups: Rides & Attractions, Children's Play, and Entertainment. This distinguishes what rides are suitable for visitors and the expected height restriction for each.

Attractions Key

Roller Coasters

Rides & Attractions

Children's play

Entertainment

The Ultimate

was designed by Big Country Motioneering and the park's original owner, Robert Staveley. Construction began in early 1990, taking 18 months to complete. The ride's Canadian redwood trestles and large station building were constructed by Staveley's in-house construction team, which was responsible for building Lightwater Valley's other buildings. The metal track work was ordered from BCM who used fabricators 'Tubular Engineering' to manufacture it. However, much of the installation was largely undertaken in-house and supervised by engineers from British Rail after BCM were sacked due to track problems and slow progress. The scale of the project led to both contracted companies going bankrupt halfway through its construction, leaving Staveley's team and British Rail to finish the project on their own. Staveley got assistance from American and German roller coaster manufacturers, who advised him to ensure that there was enough flexibility in the track to allow for expansion and contraction under fluctuating temperatures. Overall, the project was over a year behind schedule and went significantly over budget. Staveley wanted to ensure that he was the first to ride his creation well in advance of its opening in order to give himself time to improve and re-work areas of track. He did so by riding in one of the trains that had not yet been fitted with any restraints, using only rope to secure himself.
The ride opened on 17 July 1991 by Frank Bruno. When opened, it was the world's longest rollercoaster at, taking over 5 minutes to ride, and costing £5.2 million. Initially, Staveley had not set out to break any records and it was only once construction had gotten underway that a colleague exclaimed that there couldn't be a roller coaster longer than the one they were building. Later that day, a colleague was sent to Ripon to buy the Guinness Book of Records, which confirmed that the length of track that Staveley had ordered was well over the record. The Ultimate has two trains, which have both been reverted to the original navy blue colour after serving 17 years as red and blue. The trains also used to have over-the-shoulder-restraints until 1992 when they were removed and replaced with lap bar restraints to improve the ride experience.
A number of modifications had to be made following its opening. After a season of operation, a significant number of the bogies and wheels had cracks in them resulting in subsequent replacement and strengthening. One of the trains suffered from a wheel collapse on one of the train car chassis, resulting in minor injuries as the train coasted to a gradual stop.
In 2016, Lightwater Valley celebrated 25 years of The Ultimate.

Park mascots

Initially, the park had a single mascot, Woody the Bear. In 2001, the Valligators were introduced to the park. The Valligators were three green alligator-costumed entertainers who acted as the park's mascots named Harry, Sally and Baby Al.

Incidents

On 21 June 2001, 20-year-old Gemma Savage died following an accident the previous day when two carriages collided on Treetop Twister, a spinning Wild Mouse roller coaster, which had opened in May of that year. Police decided not to prosecute a maintenance worker, who claimed that he had only received an hour of 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 to 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.
In May 2019, a young boy fell 30 ft from The Twister and was left in critical condition. The ride was sold to a UK based showman at the end of the 2019 season.

Energy efficiency

In 2015, the park reported energy efficiency savings of around £130,000 a year stemming from investment in renewable technologies. These include new carbon-neutral biomass boilers producing 400 kW per unit, enabling the park to move away from the conventional oil-based heating system. In addition, a new ground-mounted photovoltaic array was installed in the adjacent fields, which has supplied up to 45% of the park's energy demand.

Past attractions

#NameOpenedClosedBrief DescriptionReplaced by
1Toad Hole19852006A semi-enclosed water chute, formerly called 'Devil's Cascade'. Set to reopen 2Lightwater Wheel
2The Sewer Rat19872009A Schwarzkopf Wildcat Type roller coaster, also known as 'The Rat Ride'.Raptor Attack
3Soopa Loopa19881994A double looping roller coaster manufactured by SoquetFalls Of Terror
4The Wave19902010A large Zamperla swinging ship located in the woods which closed because of a new pirate ship opening in Skeleton Cove. Sold to Alex Crow.The Flying Cutlass
5Grand Prix Go Karts19912010Traditional go-kart track.Skeleton Cove
6The Mexican Hat19942005An ARM Trabant ride. Originally located at the park entrance area, then moved next to where Flying Camels is now.The Octopus
7Viper/Zyklen19962001A City Jet / Jet 400 type ride manufactured by Schwarzkopf.Eagle's Claw
8The Batflyer19962002A steel suspended roller coaster.The Caterpillar Coaster
9The Orbiter19982004A Schwarzkopf Apollo ride owned by the Bembom Brothers and leased to Lightwater Valley. Chair swing variant. First opened with the name 'Heatwave'.The Octopus
10Beaver Rapids20002002A Reverchon two drop Log Flume ride.Grizzly Bear
11The Caterpillar Coaster20032013A D.P.V. Rides Big Apple/Wacky Worm coaster located on the former Batflyer site and re-themed/relocated to the former Vintage Cars site next to Hungry Harbour in 2014.The Little Dipper
12Grizzly Bear20042008A Pinfari Zyklon-type Roller Coaster.Wild River Rapids
Vintage Car Rally
13The Octopus20052006A Soriani & Moser Polyp ride owned by John Armitage and leased to Lightwater Valley for two seasons.Skyrider and Flying Camels
14Hornets Nest20072009A 1998 Chance Chaos purchased from Pleasureland Southport. Scrapped.Whirlwind
15Whirlwind20102011A Mondial Top Scan Eagles Creek Farm
16Whirlwind20112015A Mondial Top Scan. Sold to UK based showman Joe William Whitelegg.Apollo
17Lightwater Wheel20082016A Technical Park 82-ft observation wheel. Sold to Alex Crow.Flying Nellies
18Buffalo Express20032016Mini Train RideInteractive Playground
19Flying Camels20072016Aerial carousel ride featuring camels purchased from Pleasureland Southport.Mini Sand Diggers
20Black Widow's Web20012017A Huss Enterprise.'Thunderdome' Waltzer
21Skate Karts19902018A skateboard attraction where riders raced down a banked concrete track on "Skate Karts"
22Twister20012019A Reverchon spinning wild mouse coaster. Sold to UK based showman Emerson Edwards.Dodgems
23Spinning Teacups2019Spinning tea cups
24Mini Ferris Wheelunknown2019Mini ferris wheel
25Apollo20162020AK Rides star flyer on loan from Alex Crow

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