Flamingo Land Resort

History

Flamingo Land Resort was established in 1959 when a cinema entrepreneur, Edwin Pentland Hick, sold his cinema chain and used the funds to purchase a bankrupt country club to use the land for a zoo. The site, which occupied nine acres, was initially called The Yorkshire Zoological Gardens. A colony of flamingos were among the first animals to be housed on site.

In 1963, the gardens became home to the UK's first captive bottlenose dolphins - one of whom was given the name Sooty after the children's TV puppet. During the 1960s a small funfair began to be held on the site. In 1965 the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange as Associated Pleasure Parks and, in 1968, the park was renamed to Flamingo Park Zoo.

In the 1970s, amusement rides had become a permanent fixture of the park along with the zoo, becoming the first site in Europe to combine the attractions in one location.

The park was losing money by 1974 and underwent a major revamp when it was renamed Flamingo Land. More emphasis was placed on the "day out" experience - with fairground rides, a haunted castle, model railway and a jungle cruise raft ride on the lake. Despite a more professional marketing approach which saw regular guest appearances by celebrities and stars of the day (including the racehorse Red Rum), Flamingo Land continued to lose money.

The owners, Scotia Leisure Ltd., sold the site in 1978 to Robert Gibb - himself a former director at Scotia leisure. He put a team in place to develop the complex as a national, rather than local, tourist attraction, including investing in amusement rides. Many staff were made redundant with most re-engaged on seasonal contracts.

The rides Bullet and Thunder Mountain were constructed in 1991.

In 1995 Robert Gibb died in a car accident and his son Gordon Gibb, only 18 at the time, and his two sisters, Vicky and Melanie, took over the running of the park.

Attractions

Some of the major attractions at Flamingo Land include:

Also on the site is a gym, a leisure centre, a spa, a golf course and a large collection of log cabins and static caravans.

Pleasure Island

Flamingo Land also operated Pleasure Island Family Theme Park in Cleethorpes from its opening on 23 May 1993 until April 2010, when it became independent.

On the former site of Cleethorpes Zoo, construction for an amusement park was begun in the 1990s by RKF Entertainment. During this time RKF went into administration and Robert Gibb purchased the site as a second park to Flamingo Land. When his son Gordon Gibb became chief executive of the company, his sister Vicky Gibb and later other sister Melanie Wood took the responsibility for the Cleethorpes park.

In 2010 Melanie Wood attained her goal of taking ownership of the park, separate from the rest of the family company. Pleasure Island is now operated by Dewarsavile Enterprises Ltd, directed by Wood. This marked the end of the association between Pleasure Island and Flamingo Land.

General overview

Flamingo Land once claimed to be the largest animal holder of its kind in Europe, housing over 1,000 animals. Flamingo Land houses exotic animals, including camels, brazilian tapirs, zebras, Vicuñas, hippopotamus, giraffes, meerkats, baboons, chimpanzees, lions, rhinoceros, tigers, sea lions, parrots, and peafowl. The park takes part in breeding programmes an example of which is the Mangabeys featured in the 2006 series of ITV1 show 'Theme Park'. In June 2010, Flamingoland started work on a new penguin enclosure, the first stages of which were completed in August 2010.

Affiliations

Flamingo Land is a member of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), and has connections to other parks in the country:

African Animals

The park's emphasis is on their collection of African animals, housed in the Lost Kingdom and African Plains. The Lost River Ride was designed to give a safari experience before its final drop, and meanders through Savannah-style grasslands with giraffe, ostrich, zebra, hippotamus and rhinoceros. The Forgotten City Lion Reserve is also located in the middle of the ride.

Holiday village

The park has a large holiday village with static caravans and log cabins, a leisure centre, a swimming pool, and a café.

Also in the holiday village is the CLUB, an entertainments venue which is exclusive for caravan owners and people staying on site overnight. It is a venue capable of holding over 1000 people and boasts a large stage and resident shows as well as light entertainment performed by visiting cabaret acts.

Theme park

In the past, Flamingo Land never contained any themed areas and was very much an amusement park. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the park has developed several themed areas.

An area known as River Side One opened in 2014. This part of the resort is open to all visitors. The area has bars and it also features an outdoor stage. The area also includes the theme parks resort hotel and includes the Balloons ride which has been upgraded.

Lower Metropolis contains food outlets such as the Metropolis Bar and Grill, gift shops, cash machines, pay-to-play game stalls, the Flying Clowns ride as well as the Mia and Mylo Show.

Upper Metropolis is themed as a busy city and contains such rides as Velocity and Navigator.

This area is themed on the ocean and a seaside resort with themed stores and restaurants. It contains Cliff Hanger, the highest drop tower and the only S&S Combo Tower in the UK Professor Bubbles Seaside Adventure Ride, Frog Hopper and the Carousel.

This area was introduced for the summer of 2007 and features a water playground with squirting jets and water dropping palm trees. Splash Battle is a submarine themed ride where ride cars and off ride posts around the ride are equipped with water cannons. The thrill ride Flip Flop and the 4D cinema are also located in this area of the park.

This flight themed area features three rides: Red Baron (formerly part of Muddy Duck Farm) and a family roller coaster called Zooom.

Dino Stone Park is a prehistoric dinosaur themed land which features five rides including the high altitude star flyer ride, 'Pterodactyl' and spinning family coaster called 'Twistosaurus'. It opened in 2013.

Formally known as the 'Little Monsters Den of Mischief', this area is mainly aimed at children, and includes the attractions Little Monster's Wacky Races and Mischief Mansion. This part of the park has been slowly phased out to make way for an area themed around farm animals, such as the Tractor Ride where children 'drive' the tractors around the farm animals' pens.

This area contains such rides as Lost River Ride, Kumali, and Voodoo. When it was built in 2009, Mumbo Jumbo had the steepest drop of any roller coaster in the world, at 112 degrees.

This is an all-animal area containing various animal paddocks and is located in a quiet, secluded area of the zoo. The monorail offers a bird's eye view of the animals, as does the elevated pathway that goes over a small lake to the Penguin Coast.

This children's area was opened in 2011 and combines both play areas and animal enclosures.

The zoo

There are more 120 different species of animals in the park, including hippos, camels, meerkats, reptiles, exotic birds, giraffes, lions, chimpanzees, tigers, sea lions, baboons, zebras, rare fish, penguins, otters, and many others.

New for 2015 are the Black rhinos

Shows

Flamingo Land in the media

Theme Park is an ITV docusoap shown in the Yorkshire and Tyne Tees Regions, following the behind the scenes activities of Flamingo Land. The first series was broadcast in 2001 and a prominent part of the show was the building of the new area The Little Monsters Den of Mischief. The series in 2004 followed the development of the new water ride, The Lost River, which replaced the previous log flume, Klondike Creek. 2006 saw the third series of the popular ITV1 show, and followed the construction of the park's new coaster, Kumali.

The park's animal collection has also been a main feature of Zoo Vet at Large, which follows vet Matt Brash, both at his North Yorkshire surgeries and in his role as head vet at Flamingo Land. There have been multiple series which aired on ITV1 and are often repeated on the digital channel Sky Real Lives.

In an episode of ChuckleVision called "Romany Days", The Chuckle Brothers visit Flamingo Land in search of a pair of underpants which they believe to be of great value. The coaster they predominantly ride during the episode appears to be the Crazy Loop.

Flamingo Land took up the sponsorship of ITV Yorkshire weather in June 2007 and ITV Tyne Tees weather in July 2007. The campaign ran until the end of the season. This sponsorship was renewed with both ITV regions in March 2008 at the start of the new season.

Talk Flamingo was a long-running, discussion-based website about the park with news, construction, history, pictures, reviews and multimedia. The site closed at the end of the park's 2009 season.

Flamingo Land's wildlife management initiative operates in the villages closest to the Magombera forest with the aim to maintain tropical rainforest in Eastern Tanzania. The purpose of the project is to provide villagers with a long-term fuel alternative through education and research, therefore reducing firewood collection within the forest, and thus the pressures placed upon the local environment.

It was announced that Flamingo Land would be the new sponsors of the 2015-16 Championship season of football.

Controversy

In 2012, park owner Gordon Gibb appeared in court charged with the assault of a ticket seller outside the entrance of the park.

In 2014, a family lost their legal battle with Flamingo Land and nearly lost their home due to legal costs. A dispute arose after the park refused to allow the family to sit outside a restaurant to eat. Three of the four family members have disabilities and they wished to eat outside because their daughter, Melissa, has downs syndrome and autism and thus struggles with crowded situations. Flamingo Land insisted they ate inside on health and safety grounds.

On 22 May 2015, a teenage girl was injured and had to be taken to hospital when a footrail fell from a car of the Hero roller coaster and cut her in the head. Another person was treated at the scene. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched an investigation into the incident. Hero reopened in early June.