Minigolf at the Devon Railway Centre and Model World in Bickleigh

Finding a mini miniature golf course in Bickleigh, Tiverton.

My brother and his family were recently down in Devon and swung by the Devon Railway Centre on one of the days of their trip. Sadly the venue wasn't open at that time, but they did return later in the week when it was as there's a crazy golf course there too.

Unfortunately the course was so busy while they were there they didn't get to have a game, but they did find this superb and very mini crazy golf in the model world part of the centre!

Visit the Devon Railway Centre and Model World website for more information.

The Crazy Golf course at the Devon Railway Centre counts as a visit - even though it wasn't played - and the model course is at least half a visit too. This means the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour list of courses visited since September 2006 now stands at 998.5!

Crazy Golf at Bressingham Steam & Gardens in Diss

Finding a Crazy Golf course at Bressingham Steam & Gardens in Diss.

My brother and his family had a day out at Bressingham Steam & Gardens in Diss at the weekend and found there was a new Crazy Golf course there!

The 12-hole layout became the 996th visited overall by members of the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour since 2006!

We're looking forward to playing the minigolf course at Bressingham Steam & Gardens in the future. It'll be fun to have a go on the miniature and not so miniature railways there too.

Visit the Bressingham Steam & Gardens website for more information.

Crazy Golf at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton

There's a Crazy Golf course at Buxton's Pavilion Gardens.

You can now play Crazy Golf at the Pavilion Gardens in Buxton on weekends.

Visit the Pavilion Gardens website for more information.

We visited nearby Buxton a couple of years ago. We had a look for the old minigolf course there, but couldn't find any trace of it. The park is also home to a miniature railway so that was a nice thing to find on our trip.

Crazy Golf at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood

A look at the Crazy Golf course at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood.

We had a walk round the 18-hole Crazy Golf course at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood on our recent return trip to the seaside town.

We first visited the layout on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in 2012.

The location is also home to a Pitch & Putt course.

Pitch & Putt at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood

And the remains of a Miniature Railway!

The line used to run around the Pitch & Putt course

Where the line ends

You can still see a miniature railway tunnel on the perimeter of the Pitch & Putt course

There was once a Crazy Golf course a stone's throw away at Marine Hall Gardens. We played that course in 2009. Sadly it was removed in 2012.

Springfield Park Model Railway in Rochdale

A visit to the Springfield Park Model Railway in Rochdale.

We're big fans of miniature railways but until very recently never knew there was one at Springfield Park in Rochdale!

Visit the Rochdale Society of Model & Experimental Engineers (RSMEE) website for more information and running times of the railway.

Pitch & Putt at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood

A look at the Pitch & Putt miniature golf course at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood.

We took a look at the Pitch & Putt course at Marine Gardens on our recent trip to the seaside town.

The location is also home to a Crazy Golf course. And the remains of a Miniature Railway!

The Marine Gardens Crazy Golf course and part of the old miniature railway line

There also used to be a Crazy Golf course a stone's throw away at Marine Hall Gardens. We played that course in 2009. Sadly it was removed in 2012.

Marine Hall Gardens in Fleetwood

Old Miniature Railway at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood

There used to be a Miniature Railway at the Marine Gardens Pitch & Putt and Crazy Golf venue in Fleetwood.

We spotted the remains of a miniature railway while taking a walk round the Pitch & Putt and Crazy Golf course at Marine Gardens in Fleetwood.

You can still see - and walk through - the old miniature railway tunnel on the perimeter of the Pitch & Putt miniature golf course

New Crazy Golf course at Cefn Mably Farm Park near Cardiff

There's a new farm-themed Crazy Golf course at Cefn Mably Farm Park near Cardiff, Wales.

As well as the new Crazy Golf course the farm park is also home to a new miniature railway.

Visit the Cefn Mably Farm Park website for more information, opening times and prices.

Handforth Miniature Railway at Meriton Road Park

We found a miniature railway at one of our local parks at the weekend!

We've spent a lot of lockdown visiting different parks and outdoor spaces in and around Stockport. On Easter Sunday we went for a walk in Handforth where we found a miniature railway at Meriton Road Park.

Two trains were running!

We're big fans of miniature railways and even though we've lived nearby for almost five years never knew it existed! We've never seen any signs for it even though we've walked and parked near to it many many times before.

There was a Scarecrow Trail in the town - this was The (not so) Fat Controller

Visit the Handforth Model Engineering Society website and Handforth Miniature Railway Facebook Page for more information.

End of the line

Nearby miniature railways

Handforth is in Cheshire East and borders the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport. The borough is home to three miniature railways - at South Park in Cheadle Hulme, Brookside Miniature Railway at the Garden Centre in Poynton and the Dragon Miniature Railway at the Garden Centre in Marple.

Related blog posts:

• Miniature Railways
• Handforth

Happy Olympic Day

Today is Olympic Day.

About Olympic Day

The first Olympic Day took place on the 23rd June 1948.

Olympic Day aims to unite the whole world behind the Olympic dream and the Olympic movement.

Putt at Home

Back in April the Olympic Channel suggested building a Crazy Golf course during isolation. It was nice to see the Olympic movement getting involved in the craze for Putting at Home during lockdown.

World Minigolf Sport Federation and the Olympic movement

The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is the governing body for minigolf and has 63 member nations. There are currently a further three countries awaiting recognition as full members.

The WMF is a member of GAISF (Global Association of International Sports Federations), AIMS (Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport) and TAFISA (The Association For International Sport for All).

On the 12th January 2020 it was announced that AIMS had become a fully recognised International Olympics Committee (IOC) umbrella group.

Olympic collecting

As well as playing, organising and promoting sports I am also an avid collector of sporting memorabilia and ephemera. As such I'm a member of both the Olympin Club and Sports Philatelists International.

I got to see a lot of Olympic Torches in 2012. I was also a Paralympic Flame Assistant in Luton that year

Miniature Golf and the Olympic Games

Did you know - Miniature Golf was once played during the Olympic Games!

While it was not officially part of the Games programme, the participants in the Golf tournament at the 1904 Olympic Games held in St Louis, USA also competed in a Putting Championship on a specially built miniature golf course.

The 9-hole Putting Course was specifically built at the Glen Echo Country Club for a Putting Championship and was constructed with electric lights surrounding the layout.

The Putting competition was won by Burt McKinnie of Normandie GC. McKinnie defeated Clement Smoot of the Exmoor Club in Chicago for the trophy after McKinnie scored a total of 21. Both players had been tied going into the last hole!

The 1904 Games were quite a wild affair - with a number of other sporting events taking place out of the scope of the 'official' sports. They also took place over several months and organised alongside the World's Fair, rather than as a standalone event.

Olympiapark München

On a related note, the Olympiapark München is home to a Miniature Golf course that was set-up in the athletes village for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Now open to the public you can find more information on the Olympiapark München and the Minigolf & Pit-Pat Olympiapark München websites.

We're hoping to visit and play the courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in the future.

The Oslympic Games

Back in the summer of 2012 we were proud to be a part of the Oswestry Games. The festival of sport in Shropshire saw the sport of minigolf included in a multi-sport games event in the UK for the first time. The Oslympics consisted of more than 50 sports and cultural events held over ten-days in July 2012.

Medals from the Oswestry Games

Related blog posts:
- Olympic
- Olympics

Links:
- The Olympics
- Olympic Day

Woolworths in Brunstane, Edinburgh

A look at an old Woolworths store in Brunstane, Edinburgh.

The abandoned Woolworths store in Brunstane, Edinburgh in August 2011

My recent revisit to the old Blockbuster Video store in Fallowfield, Manchester reminded me of the old Woolworths shopfront we saw in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent last November. That in turn prompted me to look in our archives for the photos I took of the abandoned Big W Woolworths store at The Jewel retail park next to the railway station in Brunstane, Edinburgh, Scotland from 2011.

A closer look at the old entrance

Brunstane railway station on the left is dwarfed by the old abandoned Woolworths store on the right

The building is now home to The Range.

The last Woolworths

The last Woolworths shop in the UK closed in January 2009 so we were amazed to see the sign was still up at the Stoke-on-Trent store last year.

Ghost signs

We see a lot of ghost signs on shops and building on our travels. Many of these are from decades ago and they help tell the story of an area.

Unfortunately in the coming months and years we are likely to see a number of other brands disappear.

In addition to these Woolworths shops and the Blockbuster Video store we've seen the remnants of retail brands from recent years including Tandy in Hitchen, RadioShack in Lytham Saint Annes and Kwik Save in Barrow-in-Furness.

Do you have a favourite brand from years gone by? Are the remains of an old brand still visible on a building where you live or work? Do let me know.

Woolworths Pick n' Mix

Interestingly there's a Woolworths-themed miniature golf hole at Teezers Retro Golf course in Coventry, we played that course in April last year.

A loop-di-loop obstable on a Pick n' Mix minigolf hole