UK theme park named ‘most beloved attraction’ sells all its best rides | UK | News

A theme park in Cornwall once described as the county’s “most beloved tourist attraction” is auctioning off its rides after being forced to close by rising costs and a dip in footfall. Flambers first opened to visitors as an aviation museum in the 1970s, before evolving into a Victorian Village exhibition, including 60 traditional shops set on historic cobblestone streets.

It then expanded into a fully-fledged theme park, with family-friendly rides and rollercoasters – and, at its peak, was described as “Cornwall’s most beloved visitor attraction”. In November 2024, however, it was announced that Flambers would close with immediate effect due to “rising costs and a steady decline in visitor numbers”. The theme park’s entire Victorian Village was sold as a single unit earlier this year, and other rides – including a space shuttle and World War Two jeep – will be auctioned off in Penzance, Cornwall, this week.

Among the other items up for grabs is the front half of a Concorde jet described as “an important and historic full-scale wooden mock-up”, which is expected to sell for up to £20,000.

The listing will also include a lifesize wax portrait of Winston Churchill – estimated to be one of the most expensive human models ever sold, with up upper price estimate of £1,200.

A hornet ice cream kiosk is also expected to sell for up to £500, with a mock-up saloon also set to be listed for between £200 and £300. What’s more, large fibreglass figures of popular characters will be on sale, including Humpty Dumpty, which could go for £120.

David Lay, director and founder of Lay’s Auctioneers, said the high asking prices for the dissembled theme park proved that the attraction was “so much greater than the sum of its parts”.

“To walk the streets of The Flambards Village is to be transported to a halcyon past, a past created by Audrey Hale using vast quantities of original material which is now so rare as to be akin to hens’ teeth,” he told MailOnline.

“Whilst we have all been enriched by the experience of cataloguing this remarkable collection, it has been tinged with sadness that this incredible creation – a whole Victorian town, perfectly realised in full-scale, with every corner shop, street and building absolutely historically correct, down to the last minute detail, must now be dispersed.”

While history buffs will be happy to get their hands on some of the artefacts and replicas going on sale, Flambards’ closure was sad news for many of its visitors, some of whom travelled from far and wide to enjoy the unique attraction.

“We mostly went to Cornwall for Flambards, so I’m really gutted that it’s shutting down,” Chris Bates, from Stafford, told the BBC. “[It] was like our haven away from the stresses and strains of life.”

Jessica Morgan who grew up nearby in St Agnes, said it had been the “number one destination for birthday parties” during her childhood. “When I heard it was closing, I felt really sad,” she said. “I’ve actually taken my own children there and they were asking to go again.”