Sea Road Adventure Golf in Felixstowe, Suffolk

A look at the Fantasia Adventure Golf course in Felixstowe, Suffolk.

We swung by the Fantasia Adventure Golf course on Sea Road in Felixstowe while visiting the Suffolk seaside town on Monday.

It's one of our most visited courses and was originally the 7th we went to on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The course opened in 1997/98 and was one of the first adventure golf layouts to open in the UK.

The course is planned to close for good...

Sadly the Fantasia Adventure Golf in Felixstowe, Suffolk is set to be demolished.

The course will be closed and the site turned into residential properties after plans were approved for the work to go ahead.

It's a shame to see minigolf courses close down. Fantasia Adventure Golf has always been fun to play.

Playing Crazier Golf at Boom: Battle Bar in Ipswich

Playing the Crazier Golf course at Boom: Battle Bar at the Buttermarket in Ipswich, Suffolk.

We'd previously swung by Boom: Battle Bar in Ipswich back in 2022 when it became the 1,009th course visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

On our recent return to the town we had time for a game.

The 9-hole indoor course became the 584th played on our travels.

Boom: Battle Bar calls their brand of minigolf 'Crazier Golf'.

Check out the Boom: Battle Bar website for more information on the Ipswich venue, other locations, and the range of games available.

Videos from our visit.

Playing the first Boom: Battle Bar Crazier Golf course.

We've previously played the Crazier Golf course at Boom: Battle Bar in the Castle Quarter shopping and entertainment centre in Norwich, Norfolk. That location was the first Boom: Battle Bar venue. We played the course in August 2021.

That course was the landmark 1,000th course visited by Richard, Emily & Christopher Gottfried on the combined Crazy World of Minigolf Tour! We're now up to 1,132 courses visited since September 2006.

Street Golf opening at Beach Street in Felixstowe

Street Golf Felixstowe is opening at Manning's Amusements in the seaside town this year.

We were in Felixstowe earlier this week and swung by Manning's Amusements and Beach Street. The old entrance to the indoor course has now been sealed, with a new entrance to the course being created at the rear of the building

Felixstowe will be home to two new 9-hole indoor Crazy Golf courses as Street Golf Felixstowe opens inside Manning's Amusements at Beach Street in the Suffolk seaside town.

Construction work is underway and the former Magical Golf FX course on the site has been removed to make way for the building of the two new Crazy Golf courses.

We're looking forward to checking out the new Street Golf layouts when they open.

We've played minigolf at Manning's Amusements in Felixstowe a lot over the years. The first time we played there was back on the 19th November 2006 when it became the fifth course we ever visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour. It was also the first indoor minigolf course we played.

Back then it was one of only two indoor minigolf courses in the UK!

We've now been to 1,083 courses (1,022 in the British Isles) and there are a lot more indoor minigolf venues than there were in the mid-noughties.

The Golf FX course at Manning's Amusements was a brilliant layout, with lots of optical illusions and practical effects. It was a unique course and ahead of its time with its sound and light effects. Very few courses we have been to have come close to capturing the fun of it.

Since our first visit to Manning's Amusements the course had a few upgrades, refurbishments and name changes - it was called 'Golf FX' when we first played and has been known as 'Magical Golf', 'Magical Golf FX' and 'Harry Putter and the Magical Crazy Golf'!

The green on the old first hole is still the only revolving one we've seen on our travels! It'll be interesting to see how the new course at Manning's evolves...

Hopefully the two new Street Golf courses being built at Manning's Amusements are as good as, or better than, the course they will be replacing.

Over the last several years the team at Manning's have transformed the amusements and leisure area to incorporate Beach Street - a container yard for dining, drinking and entertainment. You can get lovely sea views from some of the seating and we enjoyed meeting friends for tapas there on our last visit to Felixstowe. It was also fun having a go on some of the new arcade games there. Roll on Spring and Summer for our next trips to the town.

Find out more and follow the progress of the course build on the Manning's Amusements and Beach Street Felixstowe websites and social media.

'Completing' our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour ten years ago today

We visited our 600th miniature golf course in the UK on this day in 2015.

We played the Mini Golf course in Goodrington Sands on the 4th June 2015 during our mammoth road trip around the South West coast of England.

In two weeks we visited 62 minigolf courses.

The Beton-style Concrete 18-hole Goodrington Park Mini Golf course in Goodrington Sands, Paignton was the 600th course visited in the UK and the 621st overall.

 

When our travels began in September 2006 we had a target to visit all of the 600 courses there were in the UK. Between then and now hundreds more course have opened, while others have closed, been demolished, abandoned or refurbished.

Of the original list of 600 we've still got to visit 39 of the public courses.

We've now been to 1,083 courses around on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour - 61 of those have been overseas.

Hopefully we'll get to return to Devon and the South West again in the future as we had a marvellous time in 2015.

The minigolf course at Youngs Park in Goodrington Sands, Paignton, Devon has been refurbished and is now Shipwreck Island Adventure Golf.

During the same road trip in the South West of England, the Jurassic Golf course at Santa-Fe Adventure Park in Swanage, Dorset became the 600th course visited overall on our tour when we swung by on Sunday 31st May 2015.

10 years of Plonk Crazy Golf!

Plonk Crazy Golf is celebrating ten years in business.

You can currently find Plonk Crazy Golf courses in London in Hackney and Borough Market.

Check out the Plonk website for more information.

We've visited several Plonk minigolf courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour over the years, including the very first Plonk Crazy Golf course when it was a pop-up at Efes Snooker Hall in Dalston back in 2015.

Plonk Golf at Efes Snooker Hall in Dalston, London - this volcano obstacle had real smoke effects!

Other Plonk locations we've been to include the Duke of Edinburgh pub beer garden in Brixton, Shoreditch, and Camden Market.

Plonk Golf at the Duke of Edinburgh pub in Brixton in 2016

Plonk Golf in Shoreditch in 2019

Plonk Golf in Shoreditch in 2019

Plonk Golf at Camden Market in 2019

Over the last ten years Plonk have created a few other pop-up and temporary courses.

Plonk Golf at Camden Market in 2020

It'll be interesting to see what the next ten years has in store for the brand...

Plonk Golf in Shoreditch in 2019

A video rental shop in 2025: Northgate Video & DVD in Bury St Edmunds

There's a video and DVD rental shop in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

While visiting family in Bury St Edmunds last year we spotted the sign for Northgate Video & DVD - a video rental shop!

We returned last week and were pleased to see the shop was still there.

Unfortunately the owner was on holiday until after we left so we didn't get a chance to have a browse and perhaps buy some ex-rentals.

We've spent the last few years documenting the last traces of Blockbuster Video stores here in the UK, and we've found some other video shop signage on our travels.

Northgate Video & DVD in Bury St Edmunds is one of only a handful of video rental shops still in business in the UK. Long may it continue!

MuseumWeek 2025

This week is MuseumWeek.

Since 2014 MuseumWeek has grown to include over 60,000 participants from 100+ countries. It has become the first virtual, worldwide cultural event across social media.

MuseumWeek is an annual offline and online event based on the mechanism 7 days, 7 topics, 7 hashtags.

Find out more on the MuseumWeek website.

The Crazy Golf Museum

As the Curator of the Crazy Golf Museum it's always nice to be able to support museum initiatives such as MuseumWeek.

The Crazy Golf Museum is the world's first virtual crazy golf museum - a worldwide archive of miniature golf memories, histories and ephemera.

Minigolf did you knows:

• The world's first miniature golf course was set-up at St Andrews, Scotland in 1867.
• James Barber opened the first minigolf course in the USA in 1916. The 'Lilliputian' miniature golf course was called 'Thistle Dhu' and located in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
• A Miniature Golf contest was part of the Olympic Games at the 1904 St Louis Games in the USA.
• Crazy Golf is 99 years old in 2025. The first course using the name 'Crazy Golf' opened on South Parade in Skegness, Lincolnshire, England in 1926.
• 1926 also saw the first artificial miniature golf course open in the USA. Garnet Carter opened the 'Tom Thumb' miniature golf course near Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• The first National Tom Thumb Golf Championship took place on the 23rd October 1930.
• The first Putt-Putt brand miniature golf course was set-up by Don Clayton in Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA in 1954.
• The Crazy Golf Museum is 15 years old in 2025. The virtual online museum is a treasure trove and archive for all things related to minigolf, crazy golf, adventure golf, miniature golf, Putt Putt, and putting.
• There are approximately 1,370 miniature golf courses in the British Isles.
• Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour is 19 years old in 2025! In that time we've visited over 1,000 courses.
• There are several Guinness World Records for achievements in Minigolf, Miniature Golf, Crazy Golf, Adventure Golf, and Putt-Putt. The 2024 edition of the Guinness World Records book featured a whole page about minigolf and you can find details of the records on the Guinness World Records website.
• There are two 'miniature golf days' each year. 'National Miniature Golf Day' is always on the second Saturday in May. In 2025 the first was on Saturday 10th May. The other minigolf day, 'Miniature Golf Day', is always on the 21st September. In 2025 that will fall on a Sunday.

Visit the Crazy Golf Museum website and check out these Crazy Golf Museum-related blog posts for more info.

Happy National Cheese Day 2025

Today is National Cheese Day!

Did you know there's a minigolf obstacle called Käse? It can be found on Eternit Miniature Golf courses.

The Käse obstacle on the Kelsey Park Mini Golf course in Beckenham

The official name of the obstacle / lane is "Schrager kreis mit hindernis" (Oblique circle with obstacle). Sometimes the obstacle is "schrager kreis mit niere" (oblique circle with kidney).

Miniaturegolf / Miniaturgolf courses (also known as Eternit / Eternite) are a type of course made using a thin concrete material. Courses consist of 18 holes made from a selection of 28 standardised designs.

An official Schrager kreis mit hindernis - this was lane 15 at Tantogårdens Bangolf in Stockholm, Sweden

Checking in the Overview for Beginners to Miniaturgolf booklet, the Käse obstacle is "erstaunlicherweise eher im norden verbreitet" (surprisingly more common in the north of Germany).

We don't have too many Eternit Miniature Golf courses here in the UK and some of those that do exist have been modified over the years.

The Miniature Golf course at Cae Glas Park in Oswestry

We have played two Schrager kreis mit hindernis holes in the UK where the obstacle was Käse. One was at Cae Glas Park in Oswestry, Shropshire, the other was in Kelsey Park in Beckenham, Greater London.

The Miniature Golf course at Kelsey Park in Beckenham

My brother Christopher recently found this cheese obstacle on the 18-hole miniature golf course at Landal Het Vennenbos in the Netherlands.

Minigolf at Landal Het Vennenbos in the Netherlands

Boom: Battle Bar opening in Reading, Berkshire

The latest Boom: Battle Bar is opening in Reading, Berkshire this week.

The doors to the newest Boom: Battle Bar open on Friday 6th June, with the Boom: Battle Bar Reading venue opening on Station Road.

We played Crazier Golf at Boom: Battle Bar in Ipswich earlier this week - it'll be interesting to see if the new Boom: Battle Bar in Reading has crazy golf too

Check out the Boom: Battle Bar website for more information on the new Reading venue.