Generations of children beloved this place.
The enduring Megafobia rollercoaster opened in 1996 and was one of many park’s important points of interest for years (Picture: John Myers)
A once-thriving theme park that delighted numerous schoolchildren throughout generations now stands silent in a quiet nook of rural Britain, its days of pleasure and journey lengthy behind it.
Oakwood Theme Park confirmed in March final yr that it will stay shut for the 2025 season and indefinitely thereafter, marking the everlasting finish of an attraction that had operated for practically 4 a long time. The Pembrokeshire venue introduced its closure with “a lot unhappiness” as dwindling customer numbers led to extreme monetary difficulties. In its last years, it had been branded the “UK’s worst theme park” by dissatisfied friends.
Aspro Parks acquired Oakwood in 2008 and pumped hundreds of thousands into the power. But final spring, the corporate cited “unrelenting financial challenges” stemming from “journey components to electrical energy prices, meals and beverage inflation, will increase within the Nationwide Dwelling Wage and adjustments to nationwide insurance coverage thresholds” which precipitated working bills to soar dramatically.
Regardless of optimism that the venue would possibly reopen, it has remained shuttered and abandoned for the previous 12 months, with points of interest having been dismantled and transported away from the premises.
Regardless of hopes that the park would reopen, it has sat closed and empty for the final 10 months (Picture: John Myers)
Oakwood opened in 1987 and for many years it attracted monumental crowds, however as we speak what was previously amongst Britain’s premier vacationer locations sits deserted and hauntingly nonetheless. Safety personnel patrol the grounds with supplementary surveillance methods deployed to discourage intruders.
In 2024, journalist Taite Johnson returned to the attraction which held “many reminiscences of her common summer season days out” for her. She stated “going as an grownup it felt very completely different and the magic of it felt misplaced to me”.
Within the park’s Nineties heyday, prolonged queues would greet friends on the gates. Nevertheless, Taite stated: “Once we bought to Oakwood we have been shocked at how few guests there have been. We arrived at 10.15am, simply quarter-hour after the park opened, together with solely a handful of different automobiles within the automotive park.”
Aerial drone photographs present the Oakwood theme park in Pembrokeshire, Wales, standing silent after its closure final yr, with curler coasters, rides and walkways mendacity unused amongst overgrown vegetation. As soon as one of many nation’s best-known regional points of interest, the park closed following monetary pressures, bringing an finish to a long time of seasonal tourism and employment within the space (Picture: John Myers)
She additionally famous the absence of safety screening, which left her feeling uncomfortable: “I used to be barely involved with the dearth of safety checks earlier than we entered the theme park. Each my pal and I had backpacks that did not get searched in any respect, which I’d have anticipated when visiting a big park the place lots of people may have been — though granted that day there have been hardly any guests.
The park is situated round 5 miles from the bustling Pembrokeshire city of Narberth (Picture: John Myers)
“The park appeared dreary and run down,” she added. “Not a lot had modified since I visited as a toddler which did give me a way of nostalgia, however did not fill me with pleasure to discover all of it once more.”
The way forward for the location is unclear as we start 2026 (Picture: John Myers)
Prolonged waits for points of interest are one thing each theme park customer will recognise, and through Oakwood’s prime years these have been akin to every other main park nationwide. But in 2024, Taite stated “that was not an issue after I visited Oakwood this week”.
The park proprietor stated challenges included ‘journey components to electrical energy prices, meals and beverage inflation, will increase within the Nationwide Dwelling Wage and adjustments to nationwide insurance coverage thresholds’ (Picture: John Myers)
She stated: “I didn’t queue for any of the rides I went on, and even bought to remain in my seat and journey once more for certainly one of them. Which may be because of the climate however one of many rollercoaster attendants informed me that the day earlier than – which didn’t see any rain – one customer rode the identical journey 50 occasions in at some point!”
Oakwood’s house owners stated ‘unrelenting financial challenges’ had pressured the closure of the theme park (Picture: John Myers)
While enormously common throughout the Nineties, lately it ceaselessly earned the doubtful title of the “worst theme park within the UK”, with quite a few social media influencers exploiting the attraction for comedic content material. It collected properly over 1,000 unfavourable critiques on TripAdvisor, and was additionally branded a spot to “keep away from in any respect prices!”.
The now closed park is ready inside acres of Pembrokeshire countryside (Picture: John Myers)
Persistent grievances relating to poor worth, insufficient repairs and unreliable journey availability dominated customer complaints.
Oakwood was as soon as a big and massively common theme park which thrilled generations of schoolchildren (Picture: John Myers)
When one other reporter, Rhodri Harrison, visited in 2021, his preliminary commentary involved the extreme entry value in comparison with rival parks providing extra points of interest, saying: “Reserving and paying on-line got here to £35.50, a steep value when contemplating different theme parks within the UK are barely cheaper with extra rides.”
This was as soon as a massively common theme park for generations of kids – now it is empty (Picture: John Myers)
He arrived to seek out instantly that its most well-known attraction, Megafobia, was closed and stated: “Upon attending to the park the primary wave of disappointment hit.”
Megafobia was for a variety of years the most important draw on the theme park (Picture: John Myers)
Its most well-known journey, Megafobia, won’t ever be used once more (Picture: John Myers)
Welcome to Oakwood 2026: the now closed theme park which drew in large customer numbers for nearly 4 a long time (Picture: John Myers)
The park is now eerily quiet (Picture: John Myers)
The Vertigo attraction on the park (Picture: John Myers)
Describing most of the rides as “worse for put on” even again then, Rhodri additionally seen how few folks there have been: “Maybe an indication of how a lot quieter the park has gotten lately, I bear in mind ready practically an hour for Megafobia and even longer for Velocity and Drenched however that wasn’t the case this time spherical.”
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