Appeal for photos to mark sleigh ride anniversary

An appeal has been made for memories and photos to celebrate a mechanical sleigh ride that has been a highlight of Coventry's festive calendar for 70 years.

Those who rode the sleigh have been asked to share items for a memory wall planned for Coventry Transport Museum, which has hosted the attraction for about a decade after it moved from the city's Co-op, where it first opened in 1956.

Gathering the material will provide an opportunity to "reflect and reminisce on the nostalgia" of past Christmases, organisers said, ahead of the attraction's opening on 5 December.

Museum manager Matthew Mullen stated: "Every year we get generations of people come in and they remember going on it as a child."

The mechanised sleigh is fixed into one place, but the scenery around it and reindeers in front move during the ride, creating the illusion of a moving ride.

Mullen remembered that last year one man, who he thought had just come to look around the museum, "didn't even know the sleigh ride was here".

"He went, 'Oh, I remember going on one of those when it was at the Co-op', and I [said], 'It's the same one'," Mullen explained.

"And he went, 'It never is, is it?'."

The man then climbed aboard and and when he came off, "he was really emotional", the venue manager said.

"He [said], 'I can't believe that I've had the chance to go on it again' - every year we have stories like that coming through."

Of the ride being housed at the Co-op for 60 years, Heart of England Co-operative community and charity advisor Emma Brodie said it was "a privilege to be involved as a true Coventrian".

"As a very small child, my parents would take me on the ride," she said.

"As a mother, both of my daughters have also been on the ride year on year on year."

Brodie added the motorised sleigh was "very well loved".

"Everybody that I've [spoken] to about the sleigh ride in the lead up to [being interviewed]... has got a story to share... a fond memory of the sleigh ride."

Mullen said work was taking place at the museum in the ride's 70th anniversary year.

"We are decorating the space. We are going for a 1950s theme... 1950s vehicles in the space, 1950s decor.

"Yeah, we've got some exciting things planned."

Brodie said 70 was "the magic number, and we obviously all feel that that should be celebrated".

"What is evident is that people have these memories, these photographs, and we would love to display people's photographs in the transport museum to share with everybody that visits this year."

People could drop photos into the museum and also posters with a QR code would be put on the community board at "your local Heart of England Co-operative store", she added.

"So if it's easier or if you don't want to let go of your precious photographs, which is understandable, then snap them, QR the code and send them in to us."

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.