75 Years Exhibition
- Thread starter Elise
- Start date
This April, journey through time as we celebrate 75 years of Drayton Manor with a special anniversary museum! Discover the park’s incredible history, from its humble beginnings to the exciting destination it is today.
Explore nostalgic memorabilia, vintage ride artefacts, and never-before-seen photos that tell the story of generations of fun. Whether you're a lifelong fan or visiting for the first time, this is your chance to relive the magic and create new memories!
Don’t miss this limited-time exhibition– included with your park admission!
Explore nostalgic memorabilia, vintage ride artefacts, and never-before-seen photos that tell the story of generations of fun. Whether you're a lifelong fan or visiting for the first time, this is your chance to relive the magic and create new memories!
Don’t miss this limited-time exhibition– included with your park admission!
Elise
Administrator
Ahead of the official opening of the museum, the park kindly invited DraytonTalk to take a look a the exhibits on display.
We don't want to spoil everything, but here's a small preview of what's to come.
There's plenty to see and lots of history in the space ready for you to discover
We don't want to spoil everything, but here's a small preview of what's to come.
There's plenty to see and lots of history in the space ready for you to discover
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Elise
Administrator
The future will be here before you know
Right the museum side of it was excellent with great information about the park history but the video was very disrespectful of the Bryan family and what they had brought to the park. It was more about the looping group.
History is written in the present for the benefit of the present.
Just a couple of comments about the museum. I can only go off of what I've seen on youtube and on here, as I haven't been in person.
The concept art is great, as are the pictures from the ECC . Not sure if I have already mentioned on here but me and another user here do have of the original copies of some of those art pieces ( not the newer concepts, but the ones from the 1990s and early noughties)
This is one of the pieces which I think is displayed in the museum; showing the African themed plaza and Rainforest Pizza restuarant, a building which was inspired by the great mosque of djenne in Mali , with all the adobe architectural elements added here, alongside general African natural features, waterholes, and wildlife (the elephants and buffalo here were repurposed from the Jungle Cruise, whereas most of the animatronics inside the cafe were built shortly before installation, bar one or two).
This is the original copy, which was actually split in to multiple pieces.
Maybe I can scan them and put digital copies of them up somewhere for people to see, if they are interested in that kind of thing. It's a niche topic but very interesting if design and technicalities behind rides are your kind of thing. Some are drawn to scale, and some aren't
Colin Bryan kept identical copies of a number of them in his office (the ones backed on to black paper were his), and it seems the park have used these for the musuem
Some constructive criticisms of the museum , however:
The signs explaining the rides either get a lot wrong, or are way too vague. I know the experience is intended for the 'average joe' to read, but some of the details in them are either way too vague or flat out incorrect.
Pirate Adventure closed in March 2015, not 2016. And it's last proper season was basically 2014, as it was only open for a couple of days in to 2015.
The maps look great, and are done in the order of the decade they were in, but it would be nice to add which rides opened and closed during each decade underneath them, to allow people to remember and recollect their experiences more clearly.
The concepts concepts next to the Excalibur sign were for the lakeside tea room designed by Space Leisure; these are not the concepts for the actual Excalibur ride (even though they were admittedly built to fit in with the theme of the ride and opened alongside it).
The Excalibur sign also incorrectly says the story was centred around a quest for the 'Excalibur' sword. The story also had very little to do with the sword, bar a quick 'lady of the lake' spoof, with her holding the sword and moaning about how heavy it was in a black country accent. The actual story was actually pretty light hearted and didn't take itself that seriously , but was broadly about Arthur and the Knights being profit driven property developers, building castle apartments over the dragons homeland, with the Dragons and Cantata telling you the story from their own perspective. It was almost like an inverted take on the usual story where you normally have the noble knight slaying the dragon. It also mocked over regulation (makes sense as it opened during the Blair era at the height of the New Labour nanny state).
It's a shame that none of this was mentioned in the museum. At least mention that the story was about Cantata the dragon and that the story was told by a dragon (it's why " A dragon's tale" was part of the ride's name!)
Also, I know its a temporary exhibition, but the knights from Excalibur are jumbled over in one section on top of what looks like explosive barrel props from the blasting barrels ride . It would be nice to have them positioned more appropriately, and have some small work added on top, to show the park really cares about its history. You could dim the area a little and use barn door lighting to focus light on the old props, or make a little medieval back drop painting behind them, or put some hay on the floor they are placed on, or thatched roofing over them, to give it an older look. Just something simple which people would pick up on, which could easily be taken down.
Other than that some very interesting historical Drayton Manor stuff displayed in there by the looks of it...
The concept art is great, as are the pictures from the ECC . Not sure if I have already mentioned on here but me and another user here do have of the original copies of some of those art pieces ( not the newer concepts, but the ones from the 1990s and early noughties)
This is one of the pieces which I think is displayed in the museum; showing the African themed plaza and Rainforest Pizza restuarant, a building which was inspired by the great mosque of djenne in Mali , with all the adobe architectural elements added here, alongside general African natural features, waterholes, and wildlife (the elephants and buffalo here were repurposed from the Jungle Cruise, whereas most of the animatronics inside the cafe were built shortly before installation, bar one or two).
This is the original copy, which was actually split in to multiple pieces.
Maybe I can scan them and put digital copies of them up somewhere for people to see, if they are interested in that kind of thing. It's a niche topic but very interesting if design and technicalities behind rides are your kind of thing. Some are drawn to scale, and some aren't
Colin Bryan kept identical copies of a number of them in his office (the ones backed on to black paper were his), and it seems the park have used these for the musuem
Some constructive criticisms of the museum , however:
The signs explaining the rides either get a lot wrong, or are way too vague. I know the experience is intended for the 'average joe' to read, but some of the details in them are either way too vague or flat out incorrect.
Pirate Adventure closed in March 2015, not 2016. And it's last proper season was basically 2014, as it was only open for a couple of days in to 2015.
The maps look great, and are done in the order of the decade they were in, but it would be nice to add which rides opened and closed during each decade underneath them, to allow people to remember and recollect their experiences more clearly.
The concepts concepts next to the Excalibur sign were for the lakeside tea room designed by Space Leisure; these are not the concepts for the actual Excalibur ride (even though they were admittedly built to fit in with the theme of the ride and opened alongside it).
The Excalibur sign also incorrectly says the story was centred around a quest for the 'Excalibur' sword. The story also had very little to do with the sword, bar a quick 'lady of the lake' spoof, with her holding the sword and moaning about how heavy it was in a black country accent. The actual story was actually pretty light hearted and didn't take itself that seriously , but was broadly about Arthur and the Knights being profit driven property developers, building castle apartments over the dragons homeland, with the Dragons and Cantata telling you the story from their own perspective. It was almost like an inverted take on the usual story where you normally have the noble knight slaying the dragon. It also mocked over regulation (makes sense as it opened during the Blair era at the height of the New Labour nanny state).
It's a shame that none of this was mentioned in the museum. At least mention that the story was about Cantata the dragon and that the story was told by a dragon (it's why " A dragon's tale" was part of the ride's name!)
Also, I know its a temporary exhibition, but the knights from Excalibur are jumbled over in one section on top of what looks like explosive barrel props from the blasting barrels ride . It would be nice to have them positioned more appropriately, and have some small work added on top, to show the park really cares about its history. You could dim the area a little and use barn door lighting to focus light on the old props, or make a little medieval back drop painting behind them, or put some hay on the floor they are placed on, or thatched roofing over them, to give it an older look. Just something simple which people would pick up on, which could easily be taken down.
Other than that some very interesting historical Drayton Manor stuff displayed in there by the looks of it...
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