Last day for iconic rollercoaster

It is the last full day of regular service for an iconic theme park ride in Staffordshire.

The Corkscrew at Alton Towers opened on 4 April 1980 and was Europe's first double-looped rollercoaster.

It cost £1.25m to build, reached speeds of 44mph (70km/h) and has carried an estimated 43 million people.

After nearly three decades of service technology has moved on and park managers said it was being retired to make way for an even better ride.

Russell Barnes, from the theme park, said: "The corkscrew has played a key part in the heritage of the Alton Towers Resort, and I am sure millions of our guests will look back with fond memories of the first time they were inverted upside down, twice within three seconds."

Memories are not the only things that have been left behind. Staff said they had found a prosthetic leg, a prosthetic ear and a diamond wedding ring among the 5,000 items of lost property left behind on the ride.

Mr Barnes said the vigorous upside down twisting action of the ride probably accounted for some of the losses.

The park closes for the season at 2100 GMT but visitors can still win the chance to ride on the last Corkscrew train when it re-opens for a special day of celebration to mark the end of its life on November 9.

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