CRHnews - Noel Edmonds & Mr Blobby storm Pleasurewood Hills

TV and radio entertainer Noel Edmonds and his sidekick Mr Blobby took theme park Pleasurewood Hills by storm on July 24, 1995, to promote the arrival of Crinkley Bottom TV Studios to replace the Castle Theatre shows.

The popular pair made promotional visits to the theme park as it changed its tag line from American Theme Park to Family Theme Park as a result of signing up the most famous comic duo since Laurel and Hardy.

Pleasurewood Hills is a theme park on a 59-acre (240,000 m2) site between Corton and Gunton, near Lowestoft, Suffolk.

The park contains attractions including three rollercoasters. Its mascot is called Woody Bear, who was given a "sailor" look in 2007.

Rides include:

Wipeout - Vekoma Boomerang roller coaster

Snake in the Grass (formerly Rattle Snake) - Steel roller coaster

Enigma (formerly Cannonball Express) - Medium steel roller coaster

The park was created by entrepreneur Joe Larter in 1982 as a small American-themed family attraction, containing a miniature railway, Cine 180 and adventure playground.

Yearly expansion brought the addition new attractions and general improvements. Controlling interest in the park was sold to RKF, a property development company, in the late 1980s.

RKF built attractions including two Sea Life centres (Great Yarmouth & Hunstanton), a Ripley's Believe It or Not (Great Yarmouth seafront) and the 9-mile (14 km) Bure Valley Railway (in Aylsham).

It started building a second Pleasurewood Hills style park in Cleethorpes, but went bankrupt in early 1991 and its attractions were sold. .

The park continued in this vein until 1996-7, when it was bought by Leisure Great Britain, a caravan park operator, who sold it in 2000 to Peter and Peggy Hadden, who had been connected with the park for many years, chaing the name to New Pleasurewood Hills.

In 2004, Grévin & Cie, a French leisure group, purchased the site. The name reverted to its original form and in early 2005 the owners said they would spend £3 million on improvements.

Changes included repainting and renaming a number of rides, but the first major investment was in the park's first inverting coaster, Wipeout (roller coaster), from the closed American Adventure. The old cars were scrapped and new ones bought from Walibi World.

In 2009 the Mellow Yellow log flume was repainted and had a revamped entrance, and was renamedTimber Falls.

The park was sold in early 2011to a new company. H.I.G Capital France, in partnership with industry expert Laurent Bruloy, purchased seven leisure parks, including Pleasurewood Hills, from across Europe.

The seven parks will benefit from a joint investment of around £1.7million over 5 years.

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