Alton Towers, as the UK's biggest and most popular theme park, needs no introduction. The park is located near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire and was built upon the site of an eighteenth-century manor, the historic seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury. The ruins of the original Towers remain and since 2000 have been used as an atmospheric setting for an attraction introducing visitors to the local legend of an ancient oak tree which is mysteriously bound in chains, supposedly because it is cursed.

While ghost stories, fictions and fantasies have inevitably grown up around this much-loved location, the factual history of the park is interesting too. The construction of the house and its splendid landscaped gardens continued throughout the first half of the nineteenth century and several generations of Earls.

The estate was first opened to the public in 1860 and fetes were held in the formal gardens, but as the costs of maintenance climbed the family eventually sold the land and house off to a group of local businessmen. Calling themselves Alton Towers Limited, this consortium restored and maintained the gardens with the proceeds from charging visitors one shilling each to enjoy fairground rides, boating and concerts in the grounds - a rather tame predecessor of the modern park.

During the Second World War, the estate was requisitioned by the Army and the grounds used as a cadet training camp. In the 1950s it was restored again and re-opened to the public with traveling fun fairs in the summer and a tea room installed in the old banqueting hall; soon followed by more and more ambitious attractions such as a miniature railway, adventure playground and a sea lion pool. The real beginning of Alton Towers as we know it was around 1980 with the construction of the UK's first double-looping rollercoaster, the Corkscrew, which remains popular to this day.

The Corkscrew is now the oldest of 33 attractions at Alton Towers, including eight coasters and three water rides. Its two inversions rather pale in comparison to some of the newer, celebrated rides such as Oblivion, the world's first vertical drop rollercoaster; Air, the world's first 'flying' rollercoaster; and the thrillseeker's favourite Nemesis, an intense inverted coaster which features four inversions and speeds underground in several places. Not content with the title of 'Europe's first inverted rollercoaster', in 2004 Nemesis secured the world record for the largest number of naked people to ride at a time!

Along with the rides, there are many tamer attractions for young children, a petting zoo, arcades, a water park and spa, speedboat racing, a climbing wall and even mini bungee jumping. There are two official Alton Towers hotels in the grounds, with bars and restaurants, live music and shows in the evenings.

Alton Towers continues to expand, with a new pirate-themed area including a huge boat ride planned to open for the 2008 summer season. With over 2.5 million visitors a year, the park shows no sign of slowing down and seems bound to keep on entertaining, thrilling and record-breaking for many years to come.

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