It opened with huge fanfare and at a cost of £1m but few can even remember the cowboy inspired theme park in south Wales. That's because it closed just weeks after opening, 36-years-ago on the site of an old colliery in the Rhondda.
Built in 1987 on the site of the former Fernhill colliery in Blaenrhondda, Western World was supposedly based on Dolly Parton’s Dollywood resort in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The purpose built Wild West town, at the foot of the Rhigos mountain, had plans for the biggest saloon bar in South Wales and 12 chalets for guests to stay in.
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The park had wooden shacks, each representing a series a slice of America, from the Wells Fargo banking company to Doc Thompson Painless Tooth Pulling (ouch), a federal courthouse, a funeral home and a gunsmiths.
The official launch of the park was captured in a series of pictures, taken by Blaenrhondda resident Philip Gronow, who attended the opening as a youngster. It was such a long time ago," Phillip said.
"I remember they used to reenact gun fights and I think they did carriage rides and there was a gift shop. I don't have a close up photo of the club they built - but it was huge. They used to have Country and Western music there every weekend."
Phillip's pictures show a number of people - geared up in cowboy hats, checkered shirts and boots, as well as a number dressed as Native Americans making their way to the Blaenrhondda site during the launch.
Kids are dressed in frilled Western jackets, while others carry flags associated with the Confederate States of America and some are dressed as Old West lawmen.
Rows of buses can be seen lined up on the gravel while horses and old cars ferry visitors along the single road leading to the site. Horse-drawn cart rides were also operated around the park. A series of classic American cars can be seen driving to, and parked up at, the launch of Western World - including a Pontiac Firebird, Chevvy and Cadillac.
Backed by seven Birmingham-based country and western fans, the Western World project cost around £1million. “They said it couldn’t be done,” the man behind the project, Brian Hughes said at the time. But we are proving them all wrong.”
By the end of the summer Mr Hughes expected the pull of the new Old West to have drawn in more than 100,000 visitors. He even claimed that almost 1,000 people had made bookings before the site had been finished. Unfortunately it was not to be the anticipated success developers had hoped for and it wasn't long before the grand venture turned to tumbleweed.
No more than a month after it first opened, the whole park shut down after supposedly suffering financial issues. By August of the same year, the last cowboys on the Rhondda Western World site had packed up and rode out.
Some of the workers were allegedly left nowhere to go after selling their homes and giving up their jobs to bring their families to south Wales. They were supported by the Blaenrhondda Action Group, who provided them with food and help.
A member of the group named, Ceri Thomas, said at the time: “We want them to stay. They’ve become part of the village.” The Fernhill Colliery site has been subject of several failed projects over the years. Located at the head of the Rhondda Valley, the land was sunk by Ebenezer Lewis of the Ferndale Colliery Company between 1869 and 1871 and was exploited for its rich coal seams.
At the time, the edge of the colliery was home to the residents of Caroline Street, many of whom were miners or the family of colliery workers. Following the closure of the ill-fated Western World in 1987, several so-called developers have suggested different plans for the site and the area has been earmarked for several doomed developments.
Valley businessman Pearce Quinn planned to develop the area in the 1990s. He even said that he was ready to re-employ some of the cowboy workers to help him open a new theme park with dozens of different attractions.
“I want somewhere people can go for four or five hours and have a really good day out,” he told the Echo. At the moment you’re just in and out in a flash.”
A few years later, Fernhill Mining Company moved in with a coal reclamation scheme from 1997 to 2000 before Cofton Developers, who bought the tip in 2005, revealed plans to build 800 houses, a neighbourhood centre, a hotel and leisure and commercial facilities.
But the land stayed derelict for another decade. It was included in the Local Development Plan for Rhondda Cynon Taff, which identified eight sites allocated for a mixture of residential, retail and recreational purposes.
The site is now owned by the Batten family and dad Andy, with sons Gavin and Lee, have been working on developing the area since they bought it at auction in 2017. In 2021 they opened four cosy, cute and comfy glamping pods and said business was booming, with all weekends fully booked since business began.
Gavin, 39, said that when they first bought the site, there was no remnant left of the former Wild West theme park, and spending time at the peaceful getaway, you would be none the wiser of the land's history.
He said: "The area where the pods are situated would have been the stables for the colliery. The land was derelict when we got it with nothing on the ground other than the foundations in the ground where the old shed used to be. It covered the whole area where the pods are now."
Building on the land's history, Gavin said the family were looking to extend the business with more pods, yurts and an outdoor spa. He said: "We have got plans with the council for another eight glamping pods. We are going to make one with disabled access. We had a few people asking for a space for families because at present they are all for couples, so we are looking at adding four yurts to cater for four families. There is an old lake which has become a stream over the years and we also want to brick that stream in to create a lake where we could have a communal wood-fired sauna, a communal hot tub and a cold plunge tub or ice bath."
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