Western World, a cowboy-themed park in South Wales that opened with much excitement and a £1 million price tag, was abandoned just weeks after its grand opening on the site of an old colliery in Rhondda.
The park was established in 1987 on the grounds of the former Fernhill Colliery in Blaenrhondda.
It was supposedly modelled after Dolly Parton’s Dollywood resort in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, featuring a purpose-built Wild West town at the foot of Rhigos mountain.
Plans for the park included the largest saloon bar in South Wales and 12 chalets for guests.
Western World boasted wooden shacks, each representing a piece of America, from the Wells Fargo banking company to Doc Thompson Painless Tooth Pulling, a federal courthouse, a funeral home, and a gunsmith.
Children were seen in frilled Western jackets, with some carrying flags linked to the Confederate States of America and others dressed as Old West lawmen.
Buses were lined up in rows on the gravel, while horses and vintage cars transported visitors along the single road leading to the site. Horse-drawn cart rides were also a feature around the park.
A collection of classic American cars, including a Pontiac Firebird, Chevvy and Cadillac, were spotted driving to and parked at the launch of Western World.
The Western World project, which cost approximately £1 million, was backed by seven country and western enthusiasts from Birmingham. “They said it couldn’t be done,”
Brian Hughes, the man behind the project, declared at the time: “They said it couldn’t be done, but we are proving them all wrong.”
Hughes anticipated that the allure of the new Old West would have attracted over 100,000 visitors by the end of summer. He even asserted that nearly 1,000 people had made reservations before the site’s completion.
However, the attraction did not achieve the success developers had envisioned and it wasn’t long before the grand scheme turned into tumbleweed.
A mere month after its initial opening, the entire park closed down due to alleged financial difficulties. By August of the same year, the last cowboys at the Rhondda Western World site had packed up and departed.
Workers were allegedly left adrift after selling homes and quitting jobs for a new start in south Wales, only to find themselves supported by the generosity of the Blaenrhondda Action Group with food and aid.
