The Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach has been threatening to knock the blocks off holidaymakers ever since it opened in 1932.
Countless numbers of thrill-seekers have faced its scary ‘headchopper’ drop in which the train dives under the supporting beams of the wooden structure. For all the world it seems like you’re going to lose your bonce – and even on repeat rides I was ducking and screaming with eyes shut tight.
Ridden by Madness in the video for their 1982 single House of Fun, it is one of only two “scenic railways” still operating in the UK. And adding to the hair-raising excitement, there are none of the usual track brakes used by modern rides – instead there’s a “brakesperson” aboard to manually control its speed.
It’s enduring popularity can be attributed to its views of the beach and the length of the ride, around about three minutes and 20 seconds, depending on the brakesperson’s style.
But if it all sounds too hairy scary, you can admire the Roller Coaster (and the beach) from the placid monorail, which has been travelling over and even through the structure since 1987.
The expansive Pleasure Beach is also packed with other traditional rides, including a ghost train, fun house, dodgems, pirate ship, carousel, twister, cups & saucers and flying elephants. On the day of our family half-term visit, 15 minutes after the park closed, there was an impressive fireworks display on the beach (also every Wednesday during the summer school holidays).
We admired them from the Pleasure Beach Gardens, which is home to go-karts, an upside down house, crazy golf and the award-winning Sara’s Tearooms.
It’s a delightful spot for lunch in the garden of beach-facing terraces, and if it’s raining you can head inside to admire all the pictures of bygone Great Yarmouth that line the walls.
Operating since 1999, Sara still makes the yummy cakes but the tearooms are now run by her son. A former Roller Coaster brakesperson himself, he’ll be happy to tell you all you need to know about the seaside town.
The promenade stretches some two-and-a-half miles from the Pleasure Beach north to the peaceful Venetian Waterways, and along the way there’s a plethora of options for more family fun.
The Sea Life Centre has a new 250,000-litre ocean tank and tunnel where the star attractions are the blacktip reef sharks that glide through a replica of a 17th century North Sea shipwreck.
Our favourite crazy golf course was Pirates Cove – a swashbuckling and pristine 18-hole course with caves, water hazards and tropical landscaping.
There are more funfair rides at the tip of Britannia Pier. Aimed at primary schoolkids, it still managed to scare the life out of my 14-year-old daughter Cerys when the ghost train broke down. The Victorian’s pier’s fourth theatre (the first three burned down) dates from 1958 and is the place to catch some top tribute acts and comedians this summer, including Jimmy Carr and Chris McCausland.
We highly recommend Merrivale Model Village, a picture-perfect England in miniature which we admired as much for its humour as its attention to detail (look out for the cheating husbands and
care home escapees).
The attraction hit the news in 2021 when the mysterious street artist Banksy secretly deposited a model stable emblazoned with the slogan “Go Big or Go Home” among the buildings.
The then owners of the model village sold the stable for £1million at auction the following year, and a replica of the original now stands in its place, complete with protective glazing to give it an air of authenticity. The piece was part of Banksy’s self-declared “Great British Spraycation” project in Norfolk, which also includes an arcade-style grabber crane in a beachfront shelter in genteel Gorleston-on-Sea on the southern side of the east Norfolk town’s harbour.
The model village also has a free-to-enter vintage penny arcade with one-arm bandits, strength testers and fortune tellers – and you can see “what the butler saw”.
On rainy days, visitors can make a beeline for the Marina Centre or The Hippodrome, which is one of only two purpose-built permanent circuses still in operation in England, and one of only three in the world with a floor that sinks into a pool. It stages 13 shows a week during the summer holidays.
Away from the prom, the Tolhouse Gaol museum is worth seeking out. Built 800 years ago for a rich merchant, it later became a courthouse and prison, and Cerys and Owen, 11, loved the old cells down in the notorious ‘dungeon’.
Round the corner, on the historic quay, we stumbled across the world’s last remaining steam-powered herring drifter, called Lydia Eve, which featured in the recent blockbuster movie Wonka and is free to explore (donations encouraged).We were staying a few miles up the coast from Great Yarmouth in Hemsby, where the road to the beach is lined with arcades, souvenir shops and the obligatory crazy golf course.
Ten minutes from Hemsby by car is The Waterside tearooms, where we boarded the Edwardian boat Gentleman Jim for a wildlife-spotting trip on Rollesby Broad. Nearby is the National Trust’s Horsey Windpump – originally built to drain the surrounding land. You can climb on a staircase all the way up to the sails. Yet for all of the many man-made attractions in this part of Norfolk, there’s one natural phenomenon, just a few minutes from the windpump, which should not be missed. Climbing over sand dunes at Horsey Gap, we were left open-mouthed by the sudden sight of one of the UK’s largest colonies of grey seals, chilling on the sandy shoreline.
You must keep the recommended 33ft distance away from them, but some of the younger seals appeared to love posing for pictures and galumphed closer.
It really set the seal, so to speak, on a great family break.
Staying beachside
We stayed at the family-owned Hemsby Beach Holiday Park. Our tastefully furnished. ‘Platinum Lodge’ comprised two bedrooms, each with en-suite bathroom, separated by a generous open-plan kitchen (with dishwasher and washing machine), dining area and lounge, with french doors opening onto a spacious decking area with a large sunken hot tub. There was plenty of space around our lodge for a kickabout, but we could also take our ball to the on-site multi-use games area.
The park also offers over a dozen activities ranging from snorkelling and canoeing at the indoor pool to a high ropes course, a climbing wall and fencing and archery sessions. The Quarterdeck restaurant is the place for breakfast, lunch and dinner and is situated next to the Show Bar, where you can grab a drink and enjoy the nightly children’s entertainment, the cabaret shows and discos – all included. The sea was just five minutes away on foot from the park entrance, but if you want to avoid the amusements and crowds there’s a little-used path from the far end of the resort which will get you to a quieter stretch of the sandy beach just as quickly.
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