Indoor fun park opens on fairground museum site

A new attraction has opened on the Devon and Cornwall border on the same site as a fairground museum that closed in November.

Dingles Fun Park is a collection of fairground attractions that for the first time are being housed indoors.

The Lifton site was previously home to the Dingles Fairground Museum owned by the Fairground Heritage Trust.

Park manager Tom Ellis said the team was using February as a trial.

He said: "Hopefully it'll be a long-term plan but we've got to see what February is like first before we get carried away."

The heritage fairground rides previously housed at the Dingles site were predominantly from the 1920-40s.

The new fun park features more modern offerings including a dodgem from the 1960s, a waltzer from the 1980s and a nearly new fun house.

Leslie Danter, who has brought his 1980s helter-skelter to the park from the Midlands, said he was looking forward to seeing whether the park works.

He said: "Normally rain closes us and it costs us a lot of money, but today is a wet day but it's warm and dry in here and I think it'll be a good atmosphere."

The trustees of the Dingles Fairground Museum said they took the decision to close its doors and move the collection because it lost money during the pandemic and the rural site was too remote.

The new team has decided to offer free entry and make the most of the enclosed site as a family-friendly safe space.

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