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Project Director Roger Dalton explains how profitable Weymouth Timewalk was when it opened. “Once we'd made that initial investment, it was giving us between 85-90% gross profit, which was hugely beneficial. It only took 2 members of staff to run all 26,000 square feet, and we made additional profits from the shop sales when people came out.” Many Weymouth locals struggle to understand why the Timewalk finally closed, because it was such a high-quality source of income and en

With new CD technology in the 1980s, Weymouth's Timewalk attraction had a huge amount of flexibility when it came to audio. Project Director Roger Dalton reveals that by using this technology, they could run Timewalk tours in multiple languages. “This was a great selling point at the time. We could run one tour in English, the next tour could be German and the next tour could be French, and they could all be going around the different scenes in their own home language.” Some

Quite excitingly, one of Weymouth Timewalk's main purposes was to present local artefacts in an engaging way, so most of the props were authentic. When visitors walked into the first scene, they were surrounded by objects and documents that really existed back then. Early 1300s: The Attic and Cargo Hold Design by John Sunderland The cat Wink Wink Roley greets guests in an attic of nautical curios. He describes Weymouth's involvement in fishing, transporting goods and smugglin

With a clever use of storytelling, Weymouth's atmospheric Timewalk attraction featured some unique hosts. Stepping through various historical eras, visitors would encounter the nine lives of the same cat, Ms. Paws. These different incarnations were often fully costumed and always full of character, revealing each scandalous detail of their surroundings. Entrance to the Timewalk We meet Ms. Paws at the entrance, flying a time-travelling barrel. This model was added in a 1999 u

In May 2018, I was led by torchlight into the gloomy remains of plague-ridden streets, a shipwreck and a long-abandoned ballroom. Where in its glory days, thousands of visitors would enjoy an immersive adventure through the town of Weymouth's history are now vast, silent sets in pitch blackness, decorated with the droppings of their pigeon residents. Some of what remains of the Timewalk experience, nearly a decade after closure; pictures by Liam Findlay Opening in 1990 and cl