Wicksteed Park

Wicksteed Park

Locomotive "Merlin" hauling a passenger train on the Wicksteed Park Railway
Slogan	The Place Where Fun Was Invented
Location	Kettering, Northamptonshire, England
Owner	Wicksteed Trust
Opened	1921
Rides
Total	27
Roller coasters	3
Water rides	4
Website	http://www.wicksteedpark.co.uk/

Wicksteed Park is an amusement park in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. The park opened in 1921. It is the second oldest theme park in the UK; the oldest is Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the A14 and is signposted from the M1 & A1 and located near the Midland Main Line between London and Sheffield.

The Park was founded by Charles Wicksteed, the son of a Unitarian minister of the same name and his wife Jane Lupton. The couple met when Charles Senior arrived in Leeds in 1835 to lead Mill Hill Chapel, at the heart of that industrial city, and two years later they married. The Lupton family was long-established there, and the Wicksteeds' children were born into a prosperous, socially active, politically involved dynasty, including educationalists, philanthropists, factory owners, and businessmen. In 1841 Charles Senior's sister Elizabeth married Jane's brother Arthur (c1817-1881), also a Unitarian minister; Uncle Arthur was, according to a family history, "The Achilles of the Leeds Complete Suffrage Association"- in other words, a tragic champion of the fight for universal suffrage.

Charles Junior was one of nine children, including Janet, who wrote, as Mrs Lewis, a memoir including her parents; Philip (Henry), the economist and Unitarian theologian; and (Joseph) Hartley, president of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers They had the maverick MP and mining engineer Arnold Lupton as their first cousin. One of their nieces was Mary Cicely Wicksteed, who married the prominent Australian surgeon Sir Hibbert Alan Stephen Newton (1887-1949)

Charles Junior set up Charles Wicksteed & Co. Ltd in 1876, based in Digby Street in Kettering, which produced items such as the first hydraulic hacksaw, the original automatic gearbox, sawing machinery, wooden toys and power drills. In 1913 he purchased a tract of Northamptonshire meadowland nearby with the intention of developing a model village. He wanted to create an open space and safe parkland for local families.