| The most spectacular
single item in all the collections is this 35 ton carousel with 20,000
lights and 269 hand crafted animals . It is 35 ft high, 80ft wide and took
10 years to complete. It was opened in 1981. |  |
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It is the largest in the world and has an amazing variety of animals (not
one is a horse). |
| Our daughter collects
camels so we always take particular note of any camels we find on our
travels. |  |
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Some of the animals are a bit fanciful with mythological creatures much in
evidence. |
| All the horses seem to
have been relegated to the walls which are covered in them. |  |
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There are also traction engines and lots of other showman's items on
display. |
| The whole is accompanied
by a huge music machine with a most impressive drum section. |  |
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We weren't sure that all the automated instruments in the collections work
but this one undoubtedly does. It also has a fairly extensive repertoire. |
| There is a second smaller
carousel. This one is also surrounded on the walls by ex-carousel horses.
These are actually now quite valuable if you are to believe all you hear on
Antiques Road Show, which is very big over here. |  |
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This is the doll's carousel, a smaller version but otherwise just like the
big one, but most animals are ridden by dolls and there are hundreds more
stood around. There are over 500 bisque dolls on this carousel alone. |
| There appear to be five
levels on this ride with sub-levels containing more dolls in between. |  |
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I couldn't get far enough away to take it all in. You can observe it from
the spiral ramp which takes you round the outside. |
| The dolls look happy
enough. You would think they would get tired and dizzy given that it turns
continuously. |  |
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The tour ends at the main carousel. I did take some video of them both but I
don't plan to put those on the website. |
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