It is one of those facts that you don’t see coming but, when it does, it completely arrests your attention and leaves you in a momentary state of disbelief!

You’re standing in the middle of Pleasure Beach Resort, which most people in Yorkshire and Lancashire know by its former name, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, when you are invited behind the scenes to check out Europe’s oldest amusement ride, The Captive Flying Machine.

That’s worthy of anyone’s attention, especially when your late dad often recalled how he and mum would go on the ‘Flying Machine’ because it was one of the most exhilarating rotary swing rides in the park, but still gentle enough to accommodate ‘Sheila’s delicate stomach!’

Even he had memories of being taken there as a kid in the early 1930’s by my grandad, when the infamous ‘Wild Mouse’ wooden roller coaster was still operating, and Noah’s Ark was a walk-through funhouse, rather than part of the entrance area that it is today.

Minutes after arriving we’d slipped through a small innocuous door to the side of one of the food stands situated beneath the ride in question and, inside, there were large cogs and turning wheels, not dissimilar to those you might find driving the large weaving machines at Bradford’s Industrial Museum. It was as if time had been frozen in aspic.

“Did you know that The Captive Flying Machine was designed by the inventor of the machine gun?” said our host. I was momentarily shocked: “No!” I replied, as if I were the only one there, only to discover that the iconic ride, dating back to 1904, was the brainchild of Sir Hiram Maxim.

Maxim is best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, but also held patents on numerous mechanical devices from hair-curling irons to steam pumps. He even laid claim to inventing the lightbulb!

And, despite experimenting with powered flight, his large aircraft designs were never successful. Ironic, therefore, that the amusement ‘flying’ ride he invented in 1904 to fund research and promote public interest in flight, is still operating more than a century later.

Maxim moved from the United States to the United Kingdom at the age of 41 but remained an American citizen until becoming a naturalised citizen in 1899, two years before receiving his knighthood.

The original Blackpool Pleasure Beach, founded in 1896 by A. W. G. Bean and his partner John Outhwaite - the current managing director is Amanda Thompson – has the largest collection of wooden roller coasters of any park in the UK with four: Big Dipper, Blue Flyer, Grand National and Nickelodeon Streak.

But, for every scream of pleasure that each visitor sounds, there is an army of technicians, costumiers, designers and administrators, ensuring that Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach Resort runs like a well-oiled machine.

My behind-the-scenes tour was at the invite of both the theme park and the British Guild of Travel Writers.

Roseanna Rutherford

Hot Ice, hot stuff!

Roseanna Rutherford is one of the wardrobe assistants ensuring that the famous, Hot Ice Show, which this year runs from July 9 – September 10th in the Pleasure Beach Arena, remains the breathtaking ‘feathers and sequins’ spectacle it has been for the last nine decades, featuring some of the world’s best ice skaters.

“Our 50,000 costumes remain under lock and key in a temperature-controlled environment,” Roseanna tells me, “but please, no photos today, otherwise it takes the surprise away from the public on opening night,” she grins.

“We have three seamstresses and another three people in the hat room,” she adds, all making for Hot Ice and, this year, its alternative show Alice in Wonderland.

The team even make for other clients including Europa-Park, Germany and the equally famous drag club, Funny Girls, which can be found further along the front on Dickson Road.

And, if you look carefully, you might even see some of the department’s feathers when ‘Strictly’ is periodically televised from Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom!

Adam Slevin...

...keeping the show...

on the road!

In another part of the Resort Creative Director, Adam Slevin and his team of resident artists, including Rob Lowe, famous for many of the park’s monster creations, including those thrilling riders of The Ghost Train, beaver away.

The duo are past masters at re-working old props and, every year, use the park’s annual closure period to service many of them.

“We have a department of 60 people carrying out health and safety checks across the Resort,” Adam tells me, “and we still employ our own traditional sign writer,” he adds, a dying art that somehow, fits perfectly with the equally traditional Wallace and Gromit ride, courtesy of Aardman Animations, with whom the Resort retains a licence, enabling it to promote the popular franchise.

Opened April 1962

We were staying at The Resort’s 5* hotel, the Boulevard, which borders the theme park.

For decades, Blackpool’s seafront was defined by faded Victorian grandeur and the sticky-sweet nostalgia of neon-lit piers....

...but, at the southern end of the Promenade, the Boulevard Hotel has re-written that script, trading kitsch for high-end polish.

Opened in 2019 as the signature luxury offering of the Thompson family’s Pleasure Beach Resort, the £12 million property serves as a sophisticated anchor for the town’s ongoing regeneration while its sister hotel, the Big Blue, caters to the traditional family market.

The internal aesthetic, curated personally by Managing Director Amanda Thompson, favours Designers Guild fabrics, bespoke artworks, TVs in the bathroom and kids’ bunk beds, as well as a muted, serene palette that feels worlds away from the adrenaline-fueled screams of the park next door.

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The hotel’s 120 rooms offer a dramatic choice of perspective: the vast, shifting tides of the Irish Sea to the west, or the tangled steel geometry of the Pleasure Beach to the east.

For roller coaster enthusiasts, the "park view" rooms are unparalleled; some suites sit within touching distance of the Big One’s towering lift hill.

However, despite this proximity, the soundproofing is formidable, ensuring the thundering machinery remains a silent, kinetic backdrop.

Beyond the views, the hotel leans into its ‘luxury seafront’ designation with its Beachside Restaurant, which spotlights locally sourced Lancashire ingredients, and the Shoreside Conference Centre.

With VIP park entry for guests and a level of service that rivals metropolitan boutiques, the Boulevard isn't just a place to stay—it is evidence of Blackpool’s ambitious, upscale plans for the future

Aviktas, the Pleasure Beach's newest ride

There was just time to check out the park’s newest ride, Aviktas and a few others including the infamous Ghost Train and the Alice in Wonderland ride, first opened in April 1962, before sampling fish, chips and mushy peas at nearby Bentley’s

Pier slot machines done - my £1 of 2p coins seemed to last forever – it was time for bed in my 5* Boulevard suite.

Clearly Pleasure Beach Resort, Blackpool remains a firm family favourite on the West Coast, and, if Sir Hiram were around to see his creation still entertaining and thrilling families more than a century on, I’m sure that the inventor of the machine gun would be delighted because, as it celebrates its 130th birthday, Pleasure Beach Resort and Blackpool itself, are clearly still shooting for the stars.

FAST FACTS
Boulevard Hotel
www.boulevardhotel.co.uk

Hot Ice Show
Arena Ice Rink
www.pleasurebeacharena.co.uk

Visit Blackpool
www.visitblackpool.com