We may not ride out Rachel Reeves' Budget

Founded 104 years ago by a pioneering champion of children’s play, Britain's oldest theme park Wicksteed Park faces financial ruin as a result of the Chancellor's tax hikes

- James Knuckey

RACHEL Reeves has made much of the happy school holidays she spent with her grandparents in Kettering, where she learnt from them the value of hard work and helped man the Salvation Army shop connected to their church. In one of many articles highlighting her connection to the Northamptonshire town where she campaigned last year before Labour's landslide and her shoemaker forebears, she fondly recalled "going to Wicksteed Park".

Yet the Chancellor's warm words mean little to Oliver Wicksteed today, as he looks over the pioneering park his great-grandfather built. And that's because Reeves' Budget measures now threaten to wreck the same attraction she once enjoyed, like a hammerwielding customer making an over-zealous blow to the high striker.

"This mustn't happen, I don't even want to contemplate it," Oliver says firmly as we discuss the prospect of the historic attraction having to close amid rising costs, which he attributes in part to the Government's controversial autumn Budget.

"It's the impact that [closing] will have on the well-being of people, which would be the thing that would really matter the most, because if this place was not accessible to those people, where would they go?" We're chatting over a coffee inside the park's restored Edwardian Pavilion, which offers views over the stunning 281-acre estate. Founded in 1921, Wicksteed is the UK's oldest mainland theme park and offers visitors a multitude of experiences in its beautiful gardens and walking trails.

The Reverend Richard Coles and comedian James Acaster are among its celebrity fans.

"Generations of people have come here and have memories," explains Oliver of its community importance.

"People met here, they've had their first kiss here, they've got married and celebrated their weddings here.