Bell Vue Zoo and Fair in Manchester. Does anyone remember it?

[bluebird62]

I went to Blackpool every year with my grandparents when I was a kid.

We used to drive past Bellevue and I would look longingly at the funfair but was told there was a 'better funfair at Blackpool' (Pleasure Beach)

Unfortunatly I never got to find out cos by the time I was old enough to get there under my own steam the place had closed down.

One memory though - there was some sort of roller coaster/wild mouse type ride near the entracne and I am sure it had a plaque on it saying that some one held the record for the fastest ride ever.

Can anyone remember that???

 

 

Hello docmel.

was it called BOBS and was it built on a wooden structure. if so then my husband remembers it, as his uncle Bill Baxter was one of the head keepers there. Not many people will know this, but if you remember the series "ONE BY ONE" about a head keeper in a zoo , on the tv back in the 70's and 80's then that was portrayed at bellevue but called northern zoo. Pddy, the head keeper, took the role of Bill Baxter.

[pk014b7161]

bobs big dipper, one of the elder kids on the street trip we had ,when the car

got to the big drop stood up & shouted kalamacooya .the bloke that was running the rides clipped him when he got off,after calling him some few choice names.

[Sultana]

I think the one & only Birley school trip (1960's) used to be to Belle Vue Zoo, cant remember if it was infants or juniors though. I wasnt able to go as I used to get too travel sick!

[Godzilla]

My first memory of Belle Vue Zoo includes a large red rock with monkeys running all over it.

[lazarus]

I remember that they had a Hippo there and they fed it full cabbages and the water it was in was filthy. It was a very good thing when it was closed down.

[never wrong]

Belle Vue is a classic example of councils lack of brain it was owned or controlled by manchester city council and there only interest was taking money if the money had been reinvested and the place was able to keep track of the times belle vue would have been a excellent theme park it was very badly run in them days even though it was a goldmine

[Jabberwocky]

My mother used to take me every year.

[buck]

My very first coaster ride as a youngster in the thirties was on the Bobs. Scared the pants off of me. I went on again with my two young nephews in the 50s, and when the ride had finished they wanted another go. Boy, did I feel like a chicken. It was a great place to go. The speedway racing was a lot of fun. I used to think Manchester was a fantastic place in those days, the classy downtown, red buses, and the Bike racing at Fallowfield.

[Treatment]

I remember Belle Vue in the late 1960's. The Bobs was at one time in the Guinness Book of Records as being the fastest big dipper around. I used to take the ''Wimps'' option - the Scenic Railway, which was fast enough for me.

I also recall that there was a flea cicus.

[Nigel Womersle]

I remember my mum and dad taking me when I was a child, must have been around 1946/47 I particularly remember one of the rides was called Over the Falls, you sat in like a cabin after climbing this staicase, once inside the cabin the doors flew open the seat colapsed on to what was like a long canvas type material surface with rollers under it and you got thrown about till you reached the the bottom, caused a lot of laughs,especially for the people stood watching.

 

 

It was Shoot The Rapids in later years - a fantastic ride