Taken at the Black Country Living Museum yesterday afternoon - one of my favourite local haunts!
A helter skelter is a funfair or amusement park ride with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower. Users climb up inside the tower and slide down the outside, usually on a mat or hessian sack. Typically the ride will be of wooden construction and, in the case of fairground versions, designed to be disassembled to facilitate transportation between sites. The term is primarily (but not exclusively) found in the UK. In the US, the ride is called a "tornado slide".
Originating in the United States in an amusement park at Coney Island, the term "helter-skelter" was first recorded in the United Kingdom at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1906, taking its name from the much older adverb meaning "in confused, disorderly haste". Other recorded names for the slide include Canadian slide, alpine glide, lighthouse slip and glacier slip.
Great image-just love the Sark sky, bright colours and composition, but really learnt a bit from your description....I didn't know any of that stuff so thanks
Looks like great fun and very colorful. I could probably even do that one. Not into fast twirling type of rides, this more my speed (I think!) Great capture!
November 13th, 2013
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