John Richard Wardley (born 6 June 1950) is a British developer for theme parks, particularly dark rides and roller coasters. He is known for Nemesis at Alton Towers and other major roller coasters in the UK and Europe.
Career Wardley started his career as an assistant stage manager at Windsor's Theatre Royal, then moved on to the film industry as a special effects technician. He was subsequently hired to design several attractions at Barry Island Pleasure Park in South Wales for then park director John Collins.
He was later approached by Madame Tussauds after building a homemade animatronic figure that appeared on Tomorrow's World. His first work for Tussauds was as a consultant for the animatronic show "Sixty Glorious Years" at Royalty and Empire in Windsor, Berkshire, opening in 1983.
From 1984, he was hired by head of theme parks for the Tussauds Group, Ray Barratt, to redevelop the declining Chessington Zoo in Greater London to become the Chessington World of Adventures theme park, together with John Collins and others. After the park was a success, Wardley became a park development director for Tussauds and worked on further new attractions at Chessington World of Adventures and Alton Towers through the 1990s, including The Vampire suspended coaster and Prof. Burp's Bubble Works dark ride at Chessington World of Adventures in 1990, and The Haunted House at Alton Towers in 1992.
One of his other projects was producing the Mystique show at Blackpool Pleasure Beach with park director Geoffrey Thompson, which ran for nearly 20 years.
Wardley went on to develop roller coasters such as Nemesis, Oblivion and Air (now Galactica) at Alton Towers, as well as Tidal Wave and Colossus at Thorpe Park after its acquisition by Tussauds in 1998.
Following Air's opening in 2002, Wardley left Tussauds. However, Merlin Entertainments took over the company in May 2007 and invited Wardley back as a consultant on various ride projects. He has consulted on attraction developments such as SAW - The Ride and The Swarm at Thorpe Park, TH13TEEN and The Smiler at Alton Towers, and Raptor at Gardaland.
On 22 January 2013, Wardley announced his retirement. Despite retirement, he consulted on the design for Flug Der Dämonen at Heide Park in 2014 and Wicker Man at Alton Towers in 2017, among others.
Video games RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 – consultation NoLimits Coaster 2 – technical adviser
Publishing history Creating My Own Nemesis – print edition (April 2013) – author Creating My Own Nemesis – audiobook (December 2017) – author & narrator Life After Nemesis – print edition (April 2024) – author Life After Nemesis - audiobook (July 2024) - author & narrator
Attraction projects
+Attractions developed by John Wardley Year Ride name Role Description c.1975 Uncle Frankenstein's Scream Machine (Barry Island) Design Dark ride c.1976 Wacky Gold Mine (Barry Island) Design Dark ride 1984 Sixty Glorious Years (Royalty and Empire) Consultant Animatronic show 1987 Dragon River Design Log flume 1987 Runaway Train Design Roller coaster 1987 The 5th Dimension Layout Dark Ride 1990 Prof. Burp's Bubble Works Developer Water dark ride 1990 Vampire Developer Roller coaster 1992 Runaway Mine Train Developer Roller coaster 1992 The Haunted House Developer Dark ride 1994 Nemesis Developer Roller coaster 1995 Dragon Khan Layout Roller coaster 1996 Megafobia Layout Roller coaster 1997 Stampida Layout Roller coaster 1998 Oblivion Developer Roller coaster 2000 Hex – The Legend of the Towers Developer Dark ride 2002 Air Developer Roller coaster 2002 Colossus Developer Roller coaster 2009 Saw - The Ride Consultant Roller coaster 2010 Th13teen Consultant Roller coaster 2011 Raptor Consultant Roller coaster 2012 The Swarm Consultant Roller coaster 2013 The Smiler Consultant Roller coaster 2014 Flug der Dämonen Consultant Roller coaster 2018 Wicker Man Consultant Roller coaster 2023 The Curse at Alton Manor Consultant Dark ride 2024 Nemesis Reborn Consultant Roller Coaster
References
External links