LUCKY mum-of-two Tracey Snelling has a permanent memento of her happy days holidaying in Blackpool - and it's not a stick of rock!
For a log flume boat which for almost 40 years was part of a popular ride at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach now takes pride of place in the garden of her home in Chestnut Grove, Outwood, Radcliffe.
The 8ft log' will serve as a lasting reminder of the outings she spent as a child at the Lancashire seaside resort with her parents.
Tracey (44) won the souvenir in TV's Granada Reports competition after the famous log flume ride closed down.
"I was on that ride quite a number of times when I went to Blackpool as a girl with my late parents, Edna and Harry Clarke," she recalled. "The log flume will act as a small memorial to them. Just looking at it in the garden instantly transports me back to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. We used to go there for weekends and days out."
Tracey and husband Adam, who have a ten-year-old son Lee and 13-year-old daughter Samantha, are delighted with the prize.
"To win one of the two log flumes, I had to send an email saying what I would do with it. I was very surprised to find out I had won. It came in a van and is very heavy to lift," said Tracey. "The kids are over the moon. It's proudly sitting in my front garden and hopefully next year we will fill it with flowers. It's my link with the past."
Blackpool's log flume ride opened in 1967 and was designed to simulate the hap-hazard journey of logs making their way down man-made flumes in Canada. The ride comprised 2,322ft of track and was the longest of its kind in the world. When the attraction closed last month, all 24 log flume boats went up for sale.
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