Guests could travel back to medieval times and enjoy family thrills and spills in this olde worlde area of Alton Towers.

Fact File

  • Opening Year: 1994
  • Closing Year: 2007

Phase #1 (1994-1996)

Attractions

Transportation

Food & Drink

  • Picnic Area
  • Courtyard Tavern
  • Donuts Galore
  • Friar Tuck’s Baked Potatoes
  • Hot Dogs
  • Juggler’s Donuts
  • Knight’s Feast
  • The Pitstop
  • Pizza Pasta
  • Pizza Place

Shops

  • The Courtyard Shops
  • The Third Dimension

Phase #2 (1997-2003)

Attractions

Transportation

Food & Drink

  • Courtyard Tavern
  • Eastern Express
  • Friar Tuck’s Baked Potatoes
  • Hot Dogs
  • Jester’s Court
  • Juggler’s Donuts
  • Knight’s Feast

Shops

  • 3D Shop
  • Old Time Photography Studio

Phase #3 (2004-2007)

Attractions

Transportation

Food & Drink

  • Courtyard Tavern
  • Eastern Express
  • Hot Dogs
  • Jester’s Court
  • Juggler’s Donuts
  • Knight’s Feast
  • Mexican Cantina

Shops

  • Merrie Market
  • Old Time Photography Studio

The area surrounding the Ingestre Courtyard and Lake became known as Merrie England after the dispansion of Aqualand in 1992. It first appeared on the Alton Towers map for the 1994 season, but more as a subsection of Towers Street then later as an area in its own right as it wasn’t until 1998 it seems to have really found its root in the park.

Initially the area consisted of the majority of the rides that had found a home in Aqualand, but these were thinned out and by 1997 the line-up was one which became very familiar over the years, consisting of the classic Towers attractions; The Log Flume, Swan Boats, Tea Cup Ride and 3D Cinema. The area became well known as the place to go if your were looking for food or games due to having the largest selection of restaurants and sideshows of any area of the park.

2004 saw big changes to the area with the removal of the Swan Boats and 3D Cinema. What’s more, guests could now get soaked on The Flume – Unplugged, a rethemed Log Flume where riders needed to watch out for the giant yellow duck and the power shower! Only one familiar attraction remained as guests could dry off while spinning on the Tea Cup Ride. In 2007 the area also became home to one end of the Haunted Hollow, a spooky shortcut to Gloomy Wood, which ran along the old train line.

There were also still many family games to join in on, practice your basketball skills to win a prize, state of the art arcades and the Splash Kart Challenge where you raced one another on small speed boats, which had replaced the Swan Boats!

There was a great variety of food available in the area including a barbecue area, doughnuts, Indian food in the Eastern Express, a McDonald’s take-away kiosk and the Mexican Cantina, which was new in 2006. Those guest of a more laid back disposition could then wash all this down in the Courtyard Tavern.

Merrie England then became Mutiny Bay for the 2008 season.

Gallery

Deconstruction

In the week after Merrie England closed, TowersTimes took one last look around the area that was soon to become Mutiny Bay.