Happy Mount Park

[OLIVEBUS]

In the 70,s i spent my Summers in Morecambe and visited the illuminations in Happy Mount Park .Does anyone know where i can find information/pictures of them and what happened to the tableaus and effects when they where diccontinued

[Simeon]

I was born and bred in Morecambe and I would suggest you contact the Morecame Visitor newspaper 01524 420939 or [email protected]

[Carol Anne]

Until about 1992 the park was still very much as you remembered it. A lovely place to stroll around with the kiddies on a warm summers evening with the illuminations and a lovely atmosphere. And best of all, free.

The a handful of IDIOT councillors from Lancaster dedcided to let Noel Edmonds' Crinkley bottom company get their hands on it and subsequently destroy it. They turned it into one of several so called Crinkley Bottom theme parks dotted up and down the country. It was an unmitigated disaster and lasted all of six weeks with people demanding their money back every night. My husband and I went with two under five's one evening and were charged �15 admiitance, the highlight of the whole experience was this blobby character coming out of his 'house' every so often and going 'Blobby blobby blobby'. They ripped everything out 9of that park that was nice and turned it into this CB nightmare. We demanded and got our money back, and it closed a week or so later.

However such was the negligence of the council in putting the deal together, Noel Edmonds had to be paid �1.5million in contractual penalties, which took the poor morecambe council tax payers over 10 years to clear, and of course in that time there was never any money to put the park back to the way it had been before, and to this day it is still a sorry story, compared to it's glory days when you remember it.

Try Morecambe library, they might have a photo archive.

[spudqueen]

I used to visit the illuminations in Happy Mount Park every year in the 60's (I lived in Lancaster at the time). They used to fascinate me as they actually moved and if I remember correctly there would be music. The only one I can definately remember is a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves one. Blackpool illuminations seemed tame in comparison. Sorry I have no idea what happened to the tableaux but in Walsall there is a park which also has illuminations you walk round, very similar to Happy Mount Park, though obviously updated. It is possible that they bought the Happy Mount Park ones.

[dot.hawkes]

I have lots of pics of my three kids in the park in the 1980s and 90s, sitting in the flintstones car and on the tramplines, i shall have a look and see if there are any of the lights in the background, we went there every year and they loved it.

[Carol Anne]

Can you remember which hotel you stayed at Dot?