It’s not easy to be a theme park in Britain. Cornwall’s Flambard’s discovered this when it closed down last year. It’s even harder to create a new one, as the ‘British answer to Disneyworld’ discovered in recent weeks.
It’s not all doom and gloom in the world of UK theme parks, though. Britain could soon get an import from France in the form of a £600 million branch of Puy du Fou in Oxfordshire.
Puy du Fou is France’s second most visited amusement park after Disneyland, and it’s so much more than just a bunch of rollercoasters. This place has medieval rollercoasters. Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean it relies on technology from the middle ages; these rides very much pass 2025 safety checks. It does, however, mean that the entire park is made to look decidedly historic, and that there are daily re-enactments of gladiator fights, sword fights, and chariot races.
If that sounds good to you, you’re in luck, because the owners are now looking across the channel, and hoping to open up a new location in Cherwell, Oxfordshire. Planning permission will apparently be submitted later this year, and according to Puy du Fou the chosen site, 370 acres just north of Bicester Village, is not one of ecological or historical significance.
Olivier Strebelle, the chief executive of the existing parks, has said that he wants visitors to ‘travel through time’, continuing on to say: ‘We want our guests to be disconnected from the 21st century... The best segue between [times] is nature because it’s always been there.’
Nothing is certain yet, and if past projects are anything to go off, by the time this park is built 2025 could be a long gone historical moment worthy of reenactment itself, so we wouldn’t advise holding your breath. Keep your eyes peeled for future updates – as slow as they might be.
Theme park thrills on Time Out
You don’t need to wait for Puy du Fou to open to get your theme park fix. Check out Time Out’s list of the very best theme parks in the UK. In other rollercoaster news, the world’s tallest and fastest rollercoaster is about to open in Thorpe Park and one of the UK’s most legendary rollercoasters has had a massive makeover.
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