The traveller on Blackpool’s Promenade meets a survivor from the grand age of the English seaside. Big Dipper opened at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on 23 August 1923, bringing a swift modern wooden ride to holidaymakers beside the Lancashire coast. blackpoolpleasurebeach.com

Its timber course was the work of William H. Strickler and John A. Miller, and Historic England notes its engineering importance as Europe’s first under-friction roller coaster. Here was American coaster craft set down at Blackpool, made suitable for sharper turns and steeper drops than earlier scenic railways had permitted. historicengland.org.uk

The ride did not remain a small relic. Its layout was later extended, adding further drops and the arches over the park’s south entrance, so that the old coaster became part of the Pleasure Beach approach itself, a wooden greeting to visitors arriving for a summer afternoon. en.wikipedia.org· blackpoolpleasurebeach.com

In its hundredth year, the Big Dipper was still being honoured rather than merely remembered. It received centenary attention in 2023, and in July 2024 American Coaster Enthusiasts recognised it, with Grand National, as among the first Roller Coaster Landmark recipients in the United Kingdom. blooloop.com· cdn.ymaws.com