Yorkshire Scaregrounds Scream Park: ‘I set up a Halloween event in my Yorkshire garden and now my scream park welcomes over 25,000 people each year’
A Yorkshireman who loves Halloween has gone from decorating his garden to entertain his neighbours to developing his own scare grounds - which welcomes 25,000 people each year.
Chris Walton, from Leeds, started creating Halloween garden displays at home.
He now runs Yorkshire Scaregrounds Scream Park on Hell Lane.
This year, the “hellish immersive experience” is set to host more than 25,000 visitors.
Chris said: “I started doing a marquee in the Garden, doing a little scare maze, it just got bigger and bigger.
“I’ve always done Halloween parties for my kids.
“My mother said one year that I should do this professionally.
“So we hired a building in Leeds called Temple Works.
“It was an instant success.”
Chris said that it started as more of a ‘haunted house’ in 2010.
He said: “So after that, we just found this land to buy here.”
The park, coincidentally on Hell Lane in Wakefield, has brought a “hellish immersive experience,” according to Mr Walton, over the past 15 years.
Chris said: “36,000 people visited last year, and more thrill seekers are flocking to the site this year.
“The last three years have been a complete sellout.”
Chris said that some customers don’t get scared at all, whereas others end up not making it past the scary clown at the ticket desk.
“There are a lot of quitters who don’t even make it in,” said Chris.
He added that each year the staff has a tally of how many quitters they have.
One night, they had ten people who had already booked tickets but didn’t make it through.
Chris said: “Putting it in polite terms, we've had some wet trousers.
“We've had some accidents along the way. Then you have some that cower in corners and hide, shrieking and all that, while being surrounded by people.”