Shipley Glen in West Yorkshire is often touted as a great attraction and despite living in the area for years and working in Shipley too I had never actually been. I knew there was a tramway which used to be a major attraction from Victorian times but it has been disused for a few years though I understood that it was being renovated. What really stirred my interest though was when I heard that there was an abandoned funfair somewhere in the woods near the top station of the tramway.

So, one recent evening my intrepid colleague and I set of to find this abandoned funfair and see what was left of it. The bottom station of the tramway was securely locked up and a notice informed us that indeed the tramway was still shut for renovations so we carried on up the steep path. As we neared the top station we could see on the left hand side of the path the abandoned dodgems. Although it was easy to get very close to the dodgems it was fenced off and, since I was still wearing my work trousers, I wasn’t able to hop over the fence to get a closer look. Why was this here in the first place? When was it abandoned? Why didn’t they take the dodgem cars away when it closed? Quite bizarre really!