This was our second visit in one year to Alton Towers which this time was all dressed up in its best Halloween gear.

As this is a theme park Tracie and Leah went on all the normal rides but as we showed lots of photos of that kind of stuff last time, this time we are going all arty!

The estate has existed in one form or another since the 7th century when it was the site of a Saxon fortress.

It chopped and changed owners over the century's till eventually it was owned by the 15th Earl of Shrewsbury.  He built most of the gothic looking stately home that is in the middle of the theme park back in the 18th century.

He also seemed keen to try out different names during that time as it went from Alverton Lodge to Alton Lodge to Alton Abbey before he settled on Alton Towers.

Having finished the house he moved on to the gardens which was pretty much all farm land before he got his spade out.

Its unknown when he added the dinosaurs.

If you have ever wondered why the house now is just a bunch of external walls and not much else, that's because subsequent owners did little to maintain its up keep. It got so bad that the entire building had to be stripped out.

It also seems that members of the afterlife have decided the rides aren't scary enough and have taken to wandering round trying to spice things up a bit.