Oh What A Time... - #185 Abandoned Theme Parks (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed!This week we’re looking at theme parks which simply no longer exist! We’ve got London’s glamorous and failed Segaworld, the slightly less glamorous Mr Blobby inspired Blobbyland and Wales’ own Penscynor Wild Life Park.Elsewhere, who was the last person to have read every book? How good was Kim Il Sung at golf? And can Jimmy Carter read 2,000 words a minute?! If you have anything on this, please email: [e-mail] from now on Part 1 is released on Monday and Part 2 on Wednesday - but if you want more Oh What A Time and both parts at once, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you’ll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at 👉 patreon.com/ohwhatatimeAnd as a special thank you for joining, use the code CUSTARD for 25% off your first month.You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, What a Time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else, add free, plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets, and access to the Oh, What a Time group chat. Plus, if you become an O Water Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate

where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O Watertime. Hello and welcome to part two of abandoned theme parks. Let's get on with the show. Okay. Now, in the same way that Sega was absolutely massive in the 90s and something I was really enthused about, this was also the case for Noel's house party.

My dad, to this day, in his factory, has a sticker that says crinkly bottom on the filing cabinet in his office. Lovely stuff. I can't have a China. takeaway on a Saturday night without thinking about the golden age of Saturday night TV. Yeah. Gladiators

Null's House party. I mean, by then you just spent, oh, match of the day. Blind date as well. Yeah. I mean, there was good telly on time. Blind date. Skipping around the channels as well for that. Yeah, I remember that blind date. Also, you bet earlier.

It depends when you start. If you're getting cracking at like 4 in the afternoon. Yeah. All of these TV shows mean nothing to Tom Crane. So, Tony, what is it you think you can do? I'm absolutely convinced that I can balance between 100 and 110 milk crates on my chin. Have you tried it? No, no, but I'm absolutely convinced I can do it.

Okay, your challenge starts now. And then if you did it, there was no prize. It was just people who'd be like, wow, well, the people of Britain think you're great, Tony. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I remember one episode of You Bet and the guy had memorized every single

FA Cup final, the score, the scorer's, the attendance, and he had to go down the line and they were randomly picking a FAG and he remembered every single thing and I remember thinking what a great use of a life. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. But I think I could have done that.

Do you think? Yeah, I believe you could actually. Yeah. Without revision. I reckon if I'd been given a day I reckon I could have done that quite easily More outlandish than my claim to be able to read 2,000 words a minute

You're right Chris That's a world lost to me Because I had no telly So mine is I can't detach The feeling of having a Chinese takeaway And reading either Dickens or Daphne DiMoria Or whatever

That was my Saturday evening Mr Blobby was absolutely ubiquitous But my sister who's eight years younger than me was really into Mr Blobby. And so one birthday party, my dad dressed as Mr. Blobby, hired the outfit out and burst into the garden as Mr. Blobby. And my little sister shat herself.

Oh, I bet she did. Yeah, scary costume. Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. It's absolutely terrifying. So in the 90s, Mr. Blobby was absolutely massive, figuratively and literally. A chaotic, pink and yellow spotted creation of Noel Edmunds, BBC Saturday Night program, Noel's House Party.

A man in a suit, Lord of Miss Rule, who could only say blobby, blobby, and seem to exist mainly to wreck the furniture. He was a feature within Noel's House Party, the gotcha segment where the hidden camera stitching up celebrities. And the one with Garf Crooks, which I think is what very early blobby, is just spectacular physical comedy. It's, even now, the sight of him falling over and wrecking the goal. And they're all just pissed off and wanting to get on with it. It's just genius. He was a national obsession. He actually had a, as we might remember, in December 1993,

he had a novelty hit Christmas single. It was number one. It was there for three weeks. He had T-shirts, lampshades, duvet covers, mugs, lunchboxes. One grandmother told a newspaper that her infant, grandchild's first words had been blob, blob, blob. So the next step for the Mr. Bobby franchise in the 90s was clearly a theme park.

right? In January 1994, plans were announced for a Mr. Blobby attraction in the West Country. That's a strange part of... I mean, Mr. Blobby theme part would feel that incongruous anywhere in the UK, but especially the West Country for some reason.

I think he lived in Bristol, didn't you know, Edmund? He certainly did in the deal-on-no-deal era because he bought a taxi so that he could get to the deal-no-no-deal studio more quickly and used to have a mannequin on the back seat, so it looked like you'd take an affair. When the blobby attraction was announced,

organisers managed expectations earlier. They said, it won't be a white knuckle experience. It will be a family entertainment experience. It'll be a pink knuckle experience. The chosen site was Cricket St Thomas in Somerset, a 2,000 acre estate. Do you know it, Tom?

I know it well. I grew up on the edge of Bath, so it's not a billion miles from where I grew up. Yeah. You know that area, but of course, At the time, you had no idea who Mr. Blobby was. Exactly. A 2,000-acre estate already familiar to British viewers is Grantley Manor,

the setting of BBC sitcom to the Manor Board, which, as a kid, I just frankly didn't understand and didn't connect with it. Some sitcoms I was really into as a kid. The Manor Born was just utterly perplexing. I was like, I don't understand what's going on. Not a world I understood. What was it about? What happened?

Manor houses. How many people do you know who lives in a man house? Very, very, very... I don't know what's happening. It's just not relatable, is it? No. It also operated as a wildlife park drawing around 350,000 visitors per year.

The plan was to transform the estate into a real-life version of Crinkly Bottom, the fictional village in Noel's House Party where Mr. Blobby lived. There would be a crinkly-bottom High Street, a crinkly-bottom railway, a sea-line show, a Chinese water gun, a Narnia Tunnel of an adventure fort and mercifully a pub.

I'm just, a memory is unlocking for me as I'm reading this. I went to a Noel's house party live show at Butler's Bogner Regis in the mid-90s. Did you? Yeah. So who was there? I don't remember what this show was, but Blobby was there. It was probably like 96, 97. But they could have franchised Blobby.

There could have been 100 Blobys. Yeah, exactly. Didn't see Blobby's face inside the cost. I'm pretty sure Edmonds was there. Oh, wow, that's a big. That was a big get for Bognar Regis Bartlins. The flagship Blobbyland opened on the 2nd of July, 1994. It costs three million pounds.

I mean, in the midnight... When Alan Shearer is going for 15 million, just a few years later, that's a lot of money. Who's paying for that? But then, Sega Well, 45 million. So, compared to that, it's a bargain, isn't it? Visitors could tour Dun Blobbin, Mr. Blobby's house. So there was at the ghost ride, there was dedicated areas for Noddy and the animals of Farthing Wood, one of the most popular cartoons on British television at the time.

And my four-year-old is just reading it now. And again, it's a bit like the man are born. I'm like, I'm finding this quite confusing. The existing wildlife park was folded into the experience. Tickets were £6.80 for adults and £4 for children. Not bad. That's quite recent. That's not bad as reason. The marketing pitched it as Britain's first television theme park.

But that's not quite true because the Greno. The Granada studio tour had opened in Manchester back in 1988, completely the sets from Coronation Street, at a cost of around £8 million. At the time, it was billed as Europe's first TV theme park. But Blobbyland had something Granada didn't. A mascot at the absolute peak of his cultural moment. And the launch was a hit.

In the first season, Blobbyland attracted around 650,000 visitors. 50,000 in the opening month alone. And then, so they come out. What did they do? Open two more Blobbylands. One in Morecambe, Lancashire, on the 30-5. line 94 and a third in lowest off to Suffolk the following year. Not everyone enjoyed the launches.

The mayor of nearby Chard complained that she found the blundering Blubber Mountain distasteful and felt he set a bad example to children. What an absolutely joyless mayor. How can you say Mr. Blobby? He sets a bad example for children, stumbling into stup. Well, he's not a good example. He does break everything. Yeah.

If my kids broke everything that they could see, I just think to lack of profession had literally no respect for personal space. Yeah, I would think that I'd failed as a parent. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the Morecam site, meanwhile, never found its footing. The Morcam site of Blobbyland closed within months. The problem, the central problem of the Blobbyland theme park is that it is built around a single character. And therefore, you are a hostage to that character's popularity.

And by 1995, a year later, the wave was already breaking. Noel's House Party had drawn audiences of up to 15 million at his peak but viewership slid through 95 and 96 as the show declined so did Blobby Mania and so did Blobby Land's gate numbers the flagship Somerset site closed in 97 the noddy and farthing wood sections

lasted another two years before being shuttered Noel's House Party itself the crowning glory of the Edmunds Empire was cancelled by the BBC in spring of 1999 and what happened next gave Blobby Land its strangest chapter I don't remember Blobby Land much at the time, but I remember it from what was to follow in that the site was abandoned but not demolished.

So through the 2000s and early 2010s, it became a popular destination for urban explorers, photographers and adventurers documenting the derelict spaces of Blobbyland. And people used to have raves there and stuff like that as well. There was rumours of illegal raves on the ground, claims that filled it into the British press without much in the way of verification. Doing ecstasy and having a dance in like a pink house.

It's a weird way to spendy weekend, but fair enough, each of the area. You can see the photos and videos circulating online showing the decaying remains of Dun Blobbin, overgrown footpaths, peeling paint, rotting fibreglass props. Bits of the site began disappearing. The polystyrene toilet from Dunn Blobens' bathroom famously ended up in an art gallery. I can see that. I do like Noel Edmonds' statement after House Party was cancelled. So he closed the final episode by saying,

it's an overworked expression when people say it's the end of an era. But for BBC television, for the entertainment department, for me and possibly you, really is the end of an era. I hope your memory will be very kind to us after 169 episodes. Bye. And then in a statement, I'm delighted this decision has been made.

I feel as though a huge weight to be lifted off my shoulders, history will prove that House Party was one of the most successful entertainment shows of all time. Well, to be fair, he's right. It was massive. Yeah, absolutely. And also, when it got cancelled, having plummeted to 8 million viewers,

which by today's standards, it would be a runaway success. I remember it breaking in the papers on like the Friday before his next episode of House Party, And I vividly remember tuning in thinking, what's he going to say about it? And he walked on to the set on Crickley Bottom with a comedy axe through his head. Great. Great banter.

In commercial terms, Blobby Land was a failure. It opened too fast, expanded too quickly, depended entirely on a character whose moment passed within a couple of years. I mean, in a strange way, if they'd have just got through the first 10 years, I think it would have been popular in its. own right almost. Right, yeah, yeah, interesting. I think I might have gone back. If Blobbyland was still around now, I'd love to have a go. Culturally, it was a pioneer.

In the decade since, the British leisure industry has produced a steady stream of theme parks built around children's TV. Pepper Pig World, which I've been to, Thomas Land, C. Bebe's Land at Alton Towers, Nickelodeon Land, the World of Poor Patrol, and Hallow Kitty's Secret Garden. Blobby Land was the proof of concept. Metsy, overambitious, slightly tragic. but a proof of concept all the same. A pink and yellow monster,

who briefly was the most famous character in Britain, and who walked and bumbled over so that pepper pig could run. It's one of those things, if you watch it back, it was an enormous cultural phenomenon in the UK, but try explaining it to anyone from literally any other country, and you can't.

But I think the light entertainment of any country that's not your own, Probably slightly less so now because obviously culture has become a bit more homogenous. But it's like when you go over to watch to France and you watch their light entertainment stuff on a Saturday evening, it's just really strange. All the Scandinavian stuff's really weird. It makes sense. And with that in mind, apologies to all our overseas listeners for the last 15 minutes. Yeah.

Which would have got completely up your head. But remember the far show? That is the basis of their sketch where they're doing Spanish TV. It's et-f-th-eth. And none of it makes any sense. It's interesting that, isn't it? That idea of clinging onto a character that loses its popularity. I suppose that's why in like theme parks they have these areas

which they assign to whatever is popular at the time, but then swap out the branding, basically. So the rides all remain the same. Of course. But it'll be whatever is the new fun thing for kids replaces it. And that's how you ensure your longevity, I suppose, isn't it? You get to still have the things functioning, but you just stick a different sticker on it.

But yeah, interesting. I mean, and also it's so British as well. I love it. I hope you're not that pessimistic when they finally opened Tom Crane World. I'm not thinking. We've only got a few years at best here. Yeah. Let's make the most of it.

If you mention Penskener to anyone who was a child with a connection to South Wales in the 70s, 80s or early 90s, I can guarantee to their face will just light up a nostalgia. Now, it was a wildlife park. It's going to wildlife park, which was in Kilthruhehrum, sort of near Neath. Is this a place you went to? It was a place I went to, but I think the reason, it's one of the reasons

it stayed so long in the public imagination is that the gift shop used to sell car stickers. And every, I'm not exaggerating, every car in Wales had one of these stickers. And you knew that it was a Welsh car park if you were in England or Scotland or anywhere else because if you saw the Penskeg and a wildlife park sticker,

you're like, okay, I know where they're from. I can start a conversation. And it was a really iconic sort of sticker Because it was a wildlife park It had a very 70s cartoon image of Like a monkey and a peacock And sort of all these strange animals The classic odd car

I'm looking at it now When companies realise that everyone of my age and older Has got a very sort of nice memory of this sticker Because they've started putting the image on T-shirts Oh have they? Oh nice Yeah and they're selling like hot cakes So it was a strange sort of experiment in animal conservation and entertainment.

And then just down the road, you had Gunsmoke City, which I don't remember. But that was another nearby attraction. And what it would do is it would bring a flavour of the Wild West to the post-industrial Delice Valley, right? At long last. Yeah. So it was Penn Scunner, which opened first. The Braint shall have Idris Hale, a self-made millionaire who made his money in the building trade. So in 1966, he purchased Penske and a house at Kulthruny and Neith,

began turning the grounds into a wildlife park inspired by Parrot Jungle in Miami, Florida. I love it when entrepreneurs see something in America that they think, yeah, we can definitely do this in Tivetan or this will work a treat in South End. So the American site had been opened by Franshire in 1936, and it was unusual in that it allowed the birds to fly. fly free. So years later, the flamingos from Parrot Jungle were featured in the opening credits of Miami Vice. So in 1969, Penskeener Bird Gardens opened on particular days in the year with money raised from entry fees, which were given to local charities.

So his reputation grew, and he began to see the possibilities of turning a charitable venture into one that could turn him a profits. So in May, 1971, Penskeener Bird Gardens opened as a proper wildlife park. And it had flamingos, cranes, macaws, pheasants, parakeets, penguins and toucans. Just like in Florida, they were allowed to free, they were allowed to sort of, you know, they were free to fly. 56,000 people visited in the first year of operation. So, Penn's going to, an immediate success. Were you a fan of a sort of a safari drive-thru place when you were younger? It was one of the very few things to do, yeah, so we used to go there all the time.

Because we had long leat, that was the one near us. Oh, longly. It's amazing. It was. Although we went there when I was about 12 once with three friends, and we pulled up to the area which had all the monkeys, and the guy tapped on the window, and we wound it down, and he said, I'm afraid you can't go through there,

because one of the monkeys have got herpes. So, and I still remember this, basically, one of the monkeys somehow managed to get herpes. So on the day we were there, people were. Yeah. to the park pointed to the next car and said it's that guy

yeah no and we weren't allowed through the monkey bit because of her face and I still sticks to my memory as one of my most disappointing days because of course it's the monkeys you're looking forward to

because they jump on the car and they try and rip off your wing mirrors and all this sort of stuff but you couldn't so they had the clap it's like we went to we went to a theme park the day sort of I was there with year six

and they killed for half an hour and then they closed the ride because of lightning. Yeah. So we went indoors. They keyed for another half an hour and then they closed the ride because of lightning again. And you're like,

sorry kids, this is... Lightning does strike twice. Yeah, life is disappointing. You need to get used to this. Now, by 1980, there were 175,000 people visiting Pensacuna a year, right? So by 1986, which from the time I was going,

280,000 visitors recorded. Wow. That's incredible. The numbers were so big. Obviously, greatly exceeded the local resident population, and it meant that Penskeller Wildlife Park was one of the few profitable zoos in Britain. So at the appeal of Penskela developed, so did the offer on site. There was a reptile hole, a ski lift, which is what I remember.

And the famous Alpine Slide, which opened in 1982, cost 200 grand to construct, run for 300 yards, modelled on a similar attraction in Switzerland. There were monkeys as well. There was a chimpanzee called Robbie. Robbie. There's such a sort of informal name. Yeah, yeah.

And an emperor tamarine. But it was too perfect. Over the course of the 1990s, tastes change. Different venues opened. Not least the Plantasia Tropical Zoo in Swansea was opening in 1990. And in 1998, it was going to close the door. It was the first item on the news. Like, I was absolutely staggered.

Yeah. Because if you just looked at anyone's car, you would assume it was the most popular thing on earth. But the site was left to decay, so it was visited by urban explorers and, you know, various elements of the park are still there. Now, nearby. What happened to Robbie? That's my main concern.

I've got visions of him, sort of shaking hands and saying goodbye to people in the carport, they're sort of getting into his car and driving off at the end of an era. I can't remember what happened to Robbie. Now, seven sisters in the Delis Valley, which is very close. But nearby, there was another American in spite of, venue this time based on the Wild West. Now this is another thing. The Wild West was absolutely massive

in South Wales. Why is that? I don't know right now. It opened in 1986. Gunsmoke City was the owner William Tancok's attempt to revitalise the area. So obviously now you've got a lot of de-industrialisation, people

have feeling the after effects of the 80-45 minor strike. So he was hoping that he'd attract tourists to give an economic boost to the area. So 25,000 visitors a year, eventually came to the attraction, maybe he was onto something. And what you got was a reconstruction of a Wild West Frontier town. So there were cowboys, gunslings, guns, guns, guns, guns, guns, guns,

all sorts of other things to drive the fantasy, including a saloon called the Rustler's Hotel, a jailhouse, Sunshine County Courts. This sounds incredible! Yeah, a train ride during which bandits would steal the passenger's shoes. As part of a tie-in with the local sores, mill, visitors were often given wooden guns as souvenirs. Love this. Now, in the early 90s, a teenage and a youth training scheme got his first job at gunsmoke and momentarily became a national celebrity.

He was in an interview with a national paper. He explained how the job required him to rob a train and to become adept at like lightning draws, whipping a lsou, and even dying convincingly when he was shot in the gunfights. Fantastic. Now, the success... Did you go to this place? I don't remember this, but... This sounds incredible. The success convinced that there's a copycat. Now, I went to Oakwood in Pembrokeshire,

and Oakwood had Nutty Jakes Gold Mine, and that was cowboy-themed. So, yeah, we just loved it. But there was, in January 87, 1987, Ronver Borough Council signed off on a £1 million scheme to build a similar attraction to be called Western World on the site of a former colliery in Blind Ronther, but as far into the Rhonda valleys you can get.

And the strapline claimed it was where dreams come true. Now, the council was sold a vision of thousands of tourists spending their money in sort of 50 new jobs for local people. The park opened in May 87. There was a parade from the council offices in Pentra in the Rhondda to the site in Blind Rondva. Mounted Cowboys led the way.

We were cowboy mad. So the local mayor waved them off wearing a Stetson. And it was supposed to be a taste of Arizona. But in the Rondva vile. but nor sooner had Western World Open that it was closed again with the company owing half a million pounds to its creditors. Oh, wow. Now guns smoked in the Delis Valley sort of further west, survived into the 1990s. It was never quite the same attraction as Penskeener, but it did draw tourists consistently to the area.

Until 1996, when, because of the Dunblane massacre, the British attitude to guns and basically changed overnight. Interesting. So family operators realised that suddenly, you know, the British public was so sickened by the idea of guns and there was no going back. So that was it. So in 1997, after a muted final season the year before, guns smoke closed its doors for good. Wow. And the South Wales unique experiment in Wild West-inspired tourism

came to an end. And there's nothing left to the village anymore. Just, yeah, just the memories. That's incredible. There's a lot of these places seem to be shutting down around the same time. Yeah. Yeah, the 97, 98, quite a tough time to be running. To launch a theme park. Yeah, exactly, yeah. A sort of left field's theme part.

I mean, Ben Skinner was big. I sort of Longley is still going strong. I went to Longley about 10 years ago. Yeah, no, it's massive. There's a place called Roadburg garden I used to go to. But that sounds amazing. Like, the attention to detail to all of that, the world of it, the robbery on the mini train just sounds incredible.

I'd love that as a child. Do you know what's interesting? Longley has survived still going to this day. but it's probably the most basic of all the theme parks we've just discussed. It's just animals in fields. It's monkeys ripping your car apart. It's got very impressive animals, though. It has, yeah.

It's also got a huge maze, and I think they have added some other sort of rides and stuff like that as well. A huge stately home, if you're into going around the stately home as well. We had our windscreen wipers pulled off by a monkey at Long Beach. Did you? Yeah, that did happen, yeah. Did you get it back? If it wasn't for herpes, I'd have...

My monkeys had herpes I didn't get to enjoy that. So what happens then? Do you just not have windscreen wipers driving home? Yeah, you just get there replaced, yeah. Did you? To drive home without any windscreen wipers. Draw home without any windscreen wipers.

Praying it wouldn't rain. Being pulled over by a policeman, where are your windscreen wipers? Now, this is going to sound like a lie, but a monkey stole them. But the copper was locally. He was like, yeah, monkeys, longly. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Yeah, yeah, carry on. I remember going on New Year's Eve once, It was quite wet and cold, and the monkeys ran all over the car. But because it was quite muddy, it was just monkey footprints all over the car. Should we make a decision as we close out this episode on failed theme parks and resorts, or whatever you want to call it, which of these you'd be most drawn to? So the options are, I'm going to keep with it, Zaga World. We're going to hit that Zed just for the fun of it.

Zaga World. We've got Ellis's Wild West fantasy and then Chris Blobbyland, which, Which of those you think, if it was open tomorrow, you'd be most drawn to. I reckon Blobbyland would be a bit one note. You've seen the blobby house. You've seen it all. And I'm not into gaming, so I would go back. I would either go to Gunsmoke City or to Penskegna.

I'm with you, L. So I'll come with you on that journey. Where's Skull going? Is he joining us? Oh, what a time day out? Is he going elsewhere? I'd love to go back to Sega World. I loved it. I loved it so much. So exciting. Two McDonald's in a day.

Good times. What a time to be alive, exactly. Well, there you go. That is abandoned theme parks. Thank you so much once again to our brilliant historian, Dr. Darrell Leeworthy, who is such an invaluable resource to this show and also a fantastic person and brings us this fantastic stuff that we can work from. So thank you very much for that. And thank you for giving your time and listening again. we will see you very, very soon for yet more history. Shall we all say bye after three?

Three to one. Goodbye. Bye. Oh, what a time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else. Add free. Plus access to our full archive of bonus content. Two bonus episodes every month.

Early access to live show tickets and access to the Oh, What a Time group chat. Plus if you become an Oh What a Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis, will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you must. might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash oh what a time.