Drayton Manor, one of Staffordshire's top attractions, is located near Tamworth in Staffordshire, the United Kingdom.  The nearest UK airport is Birmingham.  The first evidence of Drayton Manor dates back to cave paintings.  This particular example was found in a cave near Staffordshire going back to the bronze age.  This magnificent manor house was built by Robert Peel around 1790.  The house played host to royalty on several occasions, the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1843 being the most memorable.  The gardens were magnificent and homed all kinds of exotic birds including peacocks.  There was a collection of rare books and paintings and a gathering of stuffed animals and birds inside.  Unfortunately, the house is no longer standing, but its clock tower remains as a reminder of a once superb building.  When manor houses all over Britain started to be inherited people could not afford inheritance tax and the cost of maintenance.  A lot were opened to the public and turned into theme parks such as Drayton manor.  Car invention also assisted people in traveling to these theme parks, while in the past they could not travel as easily.

In 1949, the land was bought off the Peel family to build a family park.  Drayton Manor was more like a park with a small fun fair, not a theme park.  The rides were not the main attraction; people could eat in a restaurant and relax on a sunny day, as people still do at country parks.  In 1981, the first roller coaster known as the Jumbo Jet Rollercoaster was added; however, Drayton Manor was still treated as a park where visitors paid for each ride individually.  The modern unlimited ride use for a day began a year later.  Since then bigger and bigger rides have been developed due to new inventions in rides and safety.  Today Drayton Manor is quite a new park with modern rides such as Shockwave, Stormforce 10, Apocalypse, to name a few.  There are also numerous rides for kids at Drayton Manor.  There you will find a host of brilliant rides and attractions to keep younger visitors happy for hours.  The park is open from March until October.

At no extra charge there is also a fascinating zoo with tigers, panthers, monkeys, reptiles, bats, owls, eagles, parrots, penguins, sea lions, and more.  Drayton Manor can be surveyed from a boat, a train and a chair lift.  In fact, many famous artists, including Van Goth, have been to the park to paint pictures of it.  If look around you will see that the county has a wide range of other child-friendly diversions.  You can snow-board on real snow, visit working farms, ride on steam railways, enjoy interactive museums, or spend the day bowling, laser-zapping, swimming, dry-slope skiing, or just watching movies.  There are numerous places to eat and shop and an abundance of slot machines and funfair games in Drayton Manor Park.  Set in 250 acres of beautiful countryside, just a stone's throw from the M42, the award-winning Drayton Manor Park offers a huge array of attractions; and so Drayton Manor, a site of outstanding beauty, is for the young in nature and for the young in heart.