History - Opened in 1983 by Park Hall Leisure, it enticed both adults and children with the legend of King Arthur, his knights of the Round Table, and the wizard Merlin. And by the late 80s, the site's golden age had arrived after the opening of rides including Dragon Heights, Kingdom in the Clouds, Dragon Flyover, Falcon's Flight, and Knightmare. By then, the Chorley park had been bought out by Granada, who purchased holding company Park Hall Leisure. Granada sold up to Prime Resorts Limited, who axed rides including Excalibur and Tower or Terror while bringing in Excalibur 2, Whirlwind, and the new Knightmare.
By 2000, visitors dropped to 400,000 a year and then 380,000 by 2004. And by 2009, numbers were below 300,000 with the park entering receivership and temporary closing. The Camelot site was bought by housing developer Story Homes in 2009. At the time, it agreed to continue leasing the land to then park operator Knights Leisure despite ongoing and increasing concerns over the financial performance of the site. With less visitors going through its doors after 2009, wet weather and huge summer events including the 2012 London Olympics ended up being the final nails in the coffin for the once much-loved Lancashire attraction.
Explore - This place is local to us and we've explored it before but decided to revisit and check out what state it's in now. Access was relatively easy as long as you know where it is and don't mind getting muddy. Once inside we were wary that there is usually security at both ends of the park so it's a bit of a game of cat and mouse. What we didn't expect is there is also now a demolition crew at the entrance and work has begun. After making it round the whole park we exited and decided to walk up to the front gate and see what was going on. We chatted to a demolition worker who said the park will be gone within a week. I asked if i could take a photo of the front and was told be quick because security might not like it. Security spotted us and started to approach, not realising we'd just spent the past hour wondering around inside. I'm glad we got one last explore as we've always liked this place and have many memories of the park when it was open.
Thanks for looking.
By 2000, visitors dropped to 400,000 a year and then 380,000 by 2004. And by 2009, numbers were below 300,000 with the park entering receivership and temporary closing. The Camelot site was bought by housing developer Story Homes in 2009. At the time, it agreed to continue leasing the land to then park operator Knights Leisure despite ongoing and increasing concerns over the financial performance of the site. With less visitors going through its doors after 2009, wet weather and huge summer events including the 2012 London Olympics ended up being the final nails in the coffin for the once much-loved Lancashire attraction.
Explore - This place is local to us and we've explored it before but decided to revisit and check out what state it's in now. Access was relatively easy as long as you know where it is and don't mind getting muddy. Once inside we were wary that there is usually security at both ends of the park so it's a bit of a game of cat and mouse. What we didn't expect is there is also now a demolition crew at the entrance and work has begun. After making it round the whole park we exited and decided to walk up to the front gate and see what was going on. We chatted to a demolition worker who said the park will be gone within a week. I asked if i could take a photo of the front and was told be quick because security might not like it. Security spotted us and started to approach, not realising we'd just spent the past hour wondering around inside. I'm glad we got one last explore as we've always liked this place and have many memories of the park when it was open.
Thanks for looking.
