Popular ride from major UK seaside theme park to be relocated to Iraq
A SEASIDE theme park ride which dominated the Cleethorpes skyline for years has reopened in Iraq’s southern city of Basra.
For over a decade, Hydromax was hugely popular with thrillseekers visiting the Lincolnshire resort town’s Pleasure Island.
But when the park shut in 2016 it was put in storage along with other rides and left gathering dust until a new buyer stepped forward.
Now, after several years, it is to get a new lease of life at Happy Land Basra, a theme park overlooking the Shatt al-Arab river.
It was shipped to Iraq last month.
Video footage released by its new owners showed it arriving in a container on the back of a lorry as workers began assembling it.
Alfie Lungsden, 18, uncovered its fate after launching a mission to discover the fate of the rides that wowed families for years.
He initially thought it was heading to Southport Pleasureland.
But further research revealed it had been shipped 3,750miles away to Iraq.
Alfie, of Roxby, North Lincs., added: “I’ve been informed by the people that purchased and resold the ride that it will be reopening at Basra Happy Land in Iraq.
“The ride is yet to be built up so this is all I can share at the moment.”
Mr Lugsden, of Roxby, North Lincs., said a carousel ride dating back to 1904 was moved to Dublin.
And the theme park’s popular rollercoaster now sits atop a rooftop shopping mall in Bali.
Mr Lugsden said Hydromax was the final piece in the jigsaw.
He added: “It took quite a while to locate everything, but it was well worth it.”
Mr Lugsden also managed to track down some of the old blueprints and artist’s impressions of the rides before they were even built.
“That’s probably one of the most intriguing and rewarding parts of it all,” he said.