- published: 23 Jun 2009
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Alton Towers is a theme park and resort located in Staffordshire, England. It attracts around 2.7 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom. Alton Towers is also the 9th most visited theme park in Europe. It is based north of the village of Alton in Staffordshire (approximately 16 miles (26 km) east of Stoke-on-Trent, and not to be confused with the town of Alton in Hampshire), in the grounds of Alton Towers, a semi-ruined gothic revival country house. The estate was a former seat of the Earls of Shrewsbury.
The resort includes the theme park as well as Alton Towers Hotel, Splash Landings Hotel, Waterpark, Spa, Extraordinary Golf and Conference Centre. It is the flagship attraction of Merlin Entertainments in the United Kingdom. Major attractions at Alton Towers include Nemesis, Oblivion, Air, Rita and Th13teen.
The park's promotional music is In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg.
An Iron Age fort was built on Bunbury Hill (c.1st-century BC) which is now occupied by the Alton Towers estate. In about 700 AD, the Saxon king Ceolred of Mercia built a fortress on the hill. But King Ine of Wessex besieged the site in 716 AD. The ensuing battle, which ended in stalemate, caused such a loss of life the place was called Slain Hollow (which later became the estate's oriental water garden).
BBC 2W News and Sport titles - 2002
BBC 2W Ivor The Engine presentation - 2004
BBC 2W Start-up - 2003
BBC 2W Closedown menu - 2002
BBC 2W Wales Today and Sport Extra - 2004
BBC 2W Christmas ident - 2004
BBC 2W Ivor The Engine - 2004
BBC 2W 05 10 2007 21 12 26
BBC Wales Today on 2W - 2003
BBC Wales Today - 30 Years of Pobol Y Cwm - 2004
Alton Towers crash victim Victoria Balch learns to walk again - BBC News
BBC BY LAS
Ever behind me.
Rise a shadow taller than I.
Yet, with a certain resemblance.
How many times do I have to contemplate my own reflection.
And say: I have been blind?
I have been blind.
Yet, I saw the search and dreams of my rejection.
Walking behind me.
Every time, I am bound to have been granted the gift of better sight.
But my anxiety, built one more brick.
Fearing again to choose the wrong step.
Vaguely I remember the blurred eyes of someone small.
These strangers often come as blind.
A troubled mind I left behind.
Yet, was it I of my shadow walking in the past?