Pleasure Island carousel to be sold again after bid mistake

A disused fairground carousel bought in error by a bungling online auction bidder is to be put up for sale again.

The 114-year-old roundabout was one of thousands of items sold from the closed Pleasure Island theme park in Cleethorpes in March.

An unnamed Lincolnshire man mistakenly bid £180,000 for the carousel but the auctioneers did not pursue the sale.

It is due to go under the hammer again with a "much lower reserve price" on 21 October, auctioneer Carl Vince said.

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The carousel is one of 400 lots in a second round of auction sales.

It includes other items that did not previously sell such as the "Shrieksville" ghost train ride, which did not meet its reserve price of £80,000 and is due to be sold separately under 75 lots.

Mr Vince, from Prestige Auctions in Grimsby, said the reserve price for the carousel was yet to be decided but was expecting it "to drop by £20,000 at the very least".

"The carousel has been massively reduced in price. It was probably too expensive last time, that's why it didn't sell."

He said the ghost train ride would go under the hammer again "piece by piece" with the lots starting from £10 upwards. However, the tracks, cars and animatronics are due to be sold under one lot and "could fetch anywhere up to £10,000".

The one-day auction also includes theme park souvenirs, original ride plans and artists' impressions of the park which were not previously included.

"When we did another scan of the park we were surprised to see how much is still there," said Mr Vince.

"To a park collector, the pictures of ride plans and artist impressions are like gold dust because you don't usually see this up for sale."