2015
WORDS: JOE BISH
I Went to Diggerland: Britain's Magical Theme Park Dedicated to Excavators
Diggerland is a theme park based around JCB excavators. Almost every ride is digger-related, includes a digger in it, looks like a digger, or is just the deep, mustard yellow of a brand new industrial excavators. It seems like something that could only exist in the hungover fever dreams of a construction worker, before everything starts to melt and attack him.
There are four Diggerlands in the UK, with a fifth in Worcestershire on the way. There's also a branch in New Jersey, USA, which opened this year. They are all the brainchildren of Hugh Edeleanu, a man who looks like the archetypal sad dad in a Mike Leigh film and owns H. E. Services, the biggest supplier of diggers and other industrial equipment in Europe. Apparently, he regularly drops into the park in his helicopter—who is this Ground Force Gatsby? This Howard Hughes of hydraulic excavators? This Tonka Wonka? Basically, he's got a lot of diggers, and he's really, really into them. He even comes up with the ideas for all of the rides.
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