Wonderland opens its doors for the start of the 2023 season
Telford tourist attraction Wonderland has re-opened its doors for the first time since December – with the owners even getting over a suspected arson attack to be ready on time.
The Telford Town Park venue, which brings fairytales and nursery rhymes to life, opened its 2023 season to the public today, welcoming scores of visitors keen to enjoy an April day out.
Alice Horne, who runs the 11-acre site, said they had been thrilled to welcome people back.
She said: "It is fabulous to be back open, we have been closed to the public since December, which is the longest time the place has been closed so it is wonderful to be open and welcoming the public back again.
"We were greeted this morning by one of our regular customers which was lovely to see. It was really nice to see some of our regular annual passers and everything has run very smoothly."
Alice and her team have faced a challenge in the run-up to opening, after firefighters were called out to a blaze in an outbuilding used for storing equipment last Sunday.
A rapid clean-up operation meant the park was ready to open but Alice said it had been stressful – given her normal efforts to make sure the venue is ready at least a week in advance.
She said: "We filled an entre skip, the largest skip we could fill, we filled it with fire debris. The clean up was all done, it is just a case for waiting for some of the trees and bushes to grow back.
"We like to be a week ahead of ourselves, so we like to have the park ready the week before so we can just open the gates and unfortunately that did not happen and we spent a lot of time fixing what went wrong."
Despite the challenge Alice said they had been delighted to be up and running and are looking forward to the season ahead.
She said: "Our mission statement is to instil magic into the lives of our visitors so when the park is closed and they are not with us, although it is positive because we can do our maintenance etc, ultimately my heart is in it for when people are visiting so to open the gates and see the smiling faces is great."
Wonderland will be open every day from April 1 to 16, and will then be open every weekend up until the summer holidays.
It is also selling Extravaganza tickets for its Easter event, which runs from April 7 to 10.
