Blackgang Chine, Isle of Wight
When I accidentally dropped my gerbil on the kitchen floor and killed it, my Mum’s response was “Let’s go to Blackgang Chine!”. If there was ever a place on Earth where you could forget about the premature demise of your favourite rodent, Blackgang Chine was it. That was twenty five years ago and the place made such an impression on us that my Mum took the family there to celebrate her sixtieth birthday in 2003.
Hanging precariously onto the Southerly cliffs of the Isle of Wight, Blackgang Chine is one of a dying breed of family-run Theme Parks. It was set up in 1842 by Alexander Dabell who saw money-making potential in this spot of outstanding natural beauty. Having landscaped some gardens at the top of the Chine, he then put the area firmly on the tourist trail by acquiring a stranded whale at auction. He sold off the blubber and installed the bleached skeleton in a hut. Blackgang Chine was now officially open for business and people came from all over Britain to see the whale and walk in the beautiful gardens.
To this day, descendants of Alexander Dabell still run the park which now covers an impressive 40 acres of land. There have been a few concessions to modern expectations, such as the recent “Cliff Hanger” rollercoaster but these make little impact when compared to the folk-art qualities of the fibreglass attractions that have remained intact since the Seventies. Walking through the giant pirate’s legs at the entrance, the memories came flooding back. Imagine my joy as I re-entered “Frontier-Land” cowboy town and sat astride the same steed of yesteryear, turning a corner only to find that “The Crooked House” had not fallen prey to the terrible landslides of the Nineties. “Nursery Land” still contained the giant hallucinogenic mushrooms of my childhood and the bizarre ape-men continued to lurk in the trees en route to “Dinosaur Land”.