Meet the Crabs…
Hey, you, there! Quick. Come and help,
I’ve lost my kids in the fields of kelp!
Yes, yes my home is an awful mess,…. It’s also quiet, and I like that less
Usually a cast of crabs would be making a din.
But now I’m at such a loss as there’s no one in.
My Legends of ancient kingdoms have fuelled my children’s dreams
And I’ve lost them through the reef, as they seek what they’ve not seen
I’m so worried they’ll wonder deep, with all the fish that bite
And my wife will surely boil me if they’re not home by tonight
There’s Baby, Bold, Cranky, Wizzy, Sneeky & Mussels, to find!
Please find them quick before I loose my mind!
Giuseppe
To help Giuseppe find his lost children in the depths of our brand new magical theme world, Underwater Kingdom, book your tickets HERE.
What does Blackgang Chine mean to you?
What does Blackgang Chine mean to you?
The very word has a legendary ring about it, summoning up visions of smugglers, shipwrecks and storm lashed shores. The word Chine means chasm or gorge that has been formed by the erosive action of wind and water.
The Dabell family have steered the Blackgang experience through five generations and built up a much loved tourist attraction. Whether it’s the nostalgia of a yearly visit with the family or discovering new adventures, Blackgang Chine holds a very special place in the hearts of so many friends of Blackgang Chine across the world.
Since opening in 1843, Blackgang Chine has, over the years, continued to add new attractions whilst maintaining the much loved family favourites, including sustaining retaining it’s very first exhibit, the whale skeleton washed up on the Isle of Wight shores in 1842.
The Queen and the whale
Did you know, during Queen Mary’s visit to the chine, she was walking through the impressive framework of the whale skeleton, when she struck her head on part of the Jaw Bone and her hat was knocked off! Bruce Dabell, the manager at the time, apologised profusely and within a few minutes, a man appeared with a hacksaw to remove the offending piece of bone.
The Magic Behind Underwater Kingdom
With the new year, comes a very exciting new magical theme world, Underwater kingdom, which brings a whole new experience to our Land of Imagination. We can’t wait to unveil it to you.
To stay up-to-date with all the behind the scenes sneak peaks, ‘follow’ our Facebook and Twitter pages…
The Making of…
We’ve interviewed Jon from our creative team to find out a little more about the magic behind our brand NEW theme world, Underwater Kingdom…
What involvement have you had in the development of our new theme word Underwater Kingdom?
Underwater Kingdom was the vision of our managing director Alexander Dabell. He had a dream of creating a magical theme world where you could breathe underwater and immerse yourself into a colourful and stylized world under the surface of the sea.
Part of my role has been to help Alec and the team visualise his dream, and over the past year I’ve been working hard to bring to life the characters within the story. Our craftsmen are now working hard to help our characters take up residence in our new magical theme world.
Where has the inspiration come from for each of the unique characters?
The characters were an initial concept and from there we have applied the personality or a place for them to sit within the new world we are creating. We have a lot of creative people who work here at Blackgang and often discussions or meetings have inspired a new character. Other times I’ve gone away to sketch in our ‘Tech den’ and some of the characters are loosely based on members of staff here at Blackgang Chine, but I’ll keep it to speculation as to who’s who.
Without revealing too much, who is your favourite character?
My personal favourite characters are our two Piranhas who will be our guard dogs for a specific part of Underwater Kingdom. I’ve always been drawn to characters that are essentially cute monsters. It’s just far more interesting for a designer to take a creature that is in real life, normally deemed ugly or grotesque, and create a charismatic character from their unique appearance.
Why should visitors come and see this magical new theme world?
I think it’s exciting to see how the park is developing, seeing the breadth of history to the park, and previous iconic characters, I’ve often found myself looking through the original designer’s sketchbooks. I feel they have helped to inspire the new projects. We want to keep the unique and somewhat quirky charm to our new characters whilst bringing new technology, lighting and interactivity to the attractions. When the project has come together it will be a very vibrant and immersive addition to the park! We’re all excited, so we hope our visitors will be too.
To keep up-to-date on our brand new themeworld coming this Easter, visit our Facebook & Twitter pages for the latest news and updates…
#MyIsleofWightAwards Winner!
We are super excited to have scooped ‘Best Place for Family Fun’ in the Red Funnel Isle of Wight Ferries Myisleofwight Awards!
Huge thanks to our awesome team for working so hard to make visits to our park so special! Also, huge thanks to our wonderful visitors for making our hard work worthwhile.
