Old pictures of Adventure Island in Southend through the decades

Today the park attracts thousands of visitors each summer holiday with an exciting range of thrilling rides and attractions for the whole family.

Southend business man Philip Miller and his family bought the fun park, formery known as Peter Pan’s Playground back in 1976.

At the time the site was just an open garden with a few small children’s rides and only used the Western side of the world famous Southend Pier.

Adventure Island started out in 1918 as the Sunken Gardens, a seaside garden that in the 1920s had a few children’s rides installed.

In 1995 the park was vastly expanded when the land to the east of the pier was purchased to form part of the park.

In recent years the park has been named in Trip Advisors top ten amusement parks in the country.

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In February 2007 Adventure Island opened its flagship rollercoaster Rage, costing around £3 million and it has a scary 97 degree 75ft drop.

Last year Adventure Island was named as the fourth friendliest parks in the world.

In 2014, Adventure Island demolished the Pirate Boat, one of their oldest attractions, to make way for a new soft play area, named Adventure Inside, which opened in spring 2015.

Last year it unveiled its new big wheel to visitors.

The City Wheel, visible across the city's skyline, cost in the region of £1million and is set to be a hit with tourists and residents alike.

The new attraction took shape quickly, being built in just a matter of days in November.

Here the Echo has had a look back in the archives to find these incredible pictures of Adventure Island through the years:

The log flume in 1996

Rides in 1996

the Time Machine at Adventure Island

The slide at Adventure Island in the 1990s

The rage rollercoaster

Marc Miller with the Vortex that was replaced after 21 years