Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge

Friday 23 February 1996. It's the last day of our holiday and we are heading for home today.

On the way north though, we'll stop a couple of times in Somerset. Our first stop is at Wookey Hole, where there is a large cave system that you can go through and also a fine collection of old amusement penny slot machines. The guide showing us around the caves was very funny. The fairground museum had some old roundabout or carousel carved animal figures.

The carvings included this carved but unpainted horse's head.

Then it was back to childhood with a flood of nostalgic recognition as we entered a couple of rooms filled with old penny slots. We bought a handful of big old copper pennies and lost ourselves in the 1950s and 60s, playing these machines which filled every seaside arcade before electrics started to replace mechanics.

You just can't beat a good old whirring sound and then the CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK as the reels of a one-armed bandit came to a stop, one after the other. The Beromat was a German-made machine and a staple of arcades for many years. And look! I won tuppence for a cherry on the first reel!

Then there were the games where an eye for the movement of the ball, a bit of skill and co-ordination, and a grasp of the Laws of Physics helped you win... or otherwise... Allwins, Payramid (featured here) and other machines where your pennies dropped and bounced off a series of pins whilst you tried to get one into a winning cup or slot.

Our pennies ran out - when was it ever any different? So we got back in the car, resigned to the fact that our holiday had come to an end. Or had it? "Come on, we'll drive down Cheddar Gorge and head that way towards the motorway."

It was deserted. And it was once again well below freezing point. We stopped - the only car in sight - and looked briefly into the cave opening but without being in the slightest bit tempted to go in to explore it. Those caves run for miles and can flood too, if water manages to stay in liquid form...

I'm not sure about inside the cave, but outside it was far too cold even for water to run down the cliff face and be able to reach the ground!

Return to England South Coast, 1996 Index Page

One-Armed Bandits

When I was a nipper and we lived in Rochdale, a trip to the seaside meant these things as much as it meant going on the beach or paddling in the sea. Arcades in the 1950s were full of the sounds of mechanical cogs clicking, ticking and grinding away.

The Copper Sega above was a slightly later model than the wood-cased Beromat below. Each had their own distinctive sounds. The Sega's reels came to an abrupt stop.

The Beromat's reels were slowed by what sounded like a ratchet until they stopped. The machines required no electricity and could be sited anywhere. There were no features such as hold or nudge. All the player could do to try to influence the game was either pull the handle with a sharp yank, or pull it slowly and steadily. It probably made no difference whatsoever, but whichever method you preferred, you tried the other after a steady spell of losing...

Coin Slot Machines Index