Alton Towers, Alton, Staffordshire, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Charles Talbot succeeded his uncle as fifteenth Earl of Shrewsbury in 1787. Among the family estates was a considerable acreage in north Staffordshire, run by a steward from a farm at Alton. Impressed by the natural beauty of the area, and by his family's connections with the locality, the new Earl determined to make a home there, and until his death in 1827 devoted considerable resources to the construction of a house, and to the transformation of the adjacent valley from a dry wilderness occupied by a huge rabbit colony to an extensive pleasure ground. Work on the house and landscape was completed by the sixteenth Earl. He died in 1852 (a year which also saw the death of his architect A W N Pugin), and his successor in 1856. The seventeenth Earl's will was contested, and in 1857 the house's contents had to be put up for sale. Although the family continued to live at the Towers until 1923 the bulk of the estate was sold in 1918; the house and the remaining lands passed to a group of local businessmen in 1924.

From 1839 the grounds of Alton Towers were opened to the public at certain times of the year. Railways boosted visitor numbers, and in the later 19th century the twentieth Earl began to promote special events on Bank Holidays. The new owners of 1924 invested heavily in the grounds, and it was a major attraction in the inter-war years. Alton Towers was acquired by the Tussauds Group (part of Pearsons PLC) in 1990, and a further phase of investment began.