Blackpool Pleasure Beach's Big Dipper rollercoaster turns 100

Blackpool Pleasure Beach is celebrating the centenary of its Big Dipper ride.

One of the oldest wooden rollercoasters in the world, it opened on 23 August 1923.

Andy Hygate, head of operations at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, described the Grade II listed structure as "very special".

"Amusement parks change and adapt but you hold on to those things that are magical," he said, adding: "It's the history that's attached to it."

He said a "wooden rollercoaster is very different ride to a steel coaster".

"You'll get a different ride depending on what the weather is like."

Managing director Amanda Thompson said riding the rollercoaster was a sensory experience.

"You hear the chain pulling you up, you hear everything cranking and the wood slightly talking to you."

Paul Heany, of the Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain, said the Big Dipper was "full of character".

"It's got a life of its own," he said.

The Big Dipper is the second oldest rollercoaster still in use in Great Britain.

"When [The Big Dipper] was first built there was nothing like it," he said.

"Margate's Scenic Railway was the first, but that was more sedate."

Blackpool first established itself as an entertainment destination after Londoner William George Bean set up Hotchkiss Bicycle Railroad on the sand dunes at South Shore in 1896.

Inspired by his time in New York's Coney Island, Mr Bean started to build his tourism empire and by 1923, Blackpool Pleasure Beach was an established amusement park.

After the Big Dipper was expanded in 1934, Hollywood star Marlene Dietrich went for a ride.

The German-born actress and singer lost a pearl and gold earring in the process and later wrote to the amusement park to ask staff to search for the items.

The earring was thought lost forever until 70 years later when it was found by workmen dredging a lake as part of construction work for a new ride.

"We have compared it to pictures taken at the time of her visit and it certainly looks like one of hers," a Pleasure Beach representative said.

In 2003, 32 thrill-seekers with an average age of 75 rode on the Big Dipper to break the world record for the oldest rollercoaster riders.

Taking to the ride to mark National Grandparents Day, the riders, most of whom lived in Blackpool, had a combined age of 2,408.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [email protected]