The last minute rescue effort followed a chance conversation between Nick Laister and a heritage consultant in Nick's office kitchen late on Thursday afternoon. Nick discovered that if enough of the original mechanical parts of the Water Chute could be salvaged, the prospect of rebuilding the ride would be significantly increased.

Susan Marsh and Nick Laister then commenced a fairly intense period of telephone calls to the owners of Ocean Beach, contractors, transport companies and others who may be able to help with the salvage operation, knowing that the deadline for the handover of Ocean Beach was Wednesday 31 October.

Susan takes up the story: "Thankfully, on this occasion luck was with us and enough of the ride was still on site for us to be able to attempt a rebuild."

With everything arranged between Friday morning and Monday afternoon, Susan and her husband Eric were on-site at Rhyl this morning to meet the owner, Harold Robinson, and the Save Dreamland Campaign's contractor, Jed Hopkinson, who gave up a day off to assist us.

Susan adds: "We rescued all four boats, the main motor, gears, pumps, side motors, water pump for the spray and other bits and pieces, filling a 45 foot trailer. The Campaign even had to demolish a building to take out the gears!

"Unfortunately, the Campaign did not have time to organise a round of fund raising for this exercise and our wider funding for the project is still not in place. We therefore had to take a leap of faith and book a contractor to dismantle the gears and to load the items and we had to book a trailer to get the mechanical items off the park. Not only does the Campaign now have to pay for the contractor and trailer, we now have to transport the items to Thanet this week and hire lifting equipment to unload it in Thanet."

When we announced on 13 October that our funder - who was to have paid for the entire dismantling and transport of the Water Chute to Thanet - had pulled out, many campaigners offered financial support to the campaign. Now we really do need financial help quickly to enable us to get the key parts of the Water Chute down to Thanet and safely in storage for the heritage project. The Dreamland Trust needs up to £2,000 to pay for the contractors, transport and plant. If you are able to contribute please email nick@savedreamland.co.uk.

The photo gallery below shows the Save Dreamland Campaign dismantling the main mechanical items from the Water Chute at Ocean Beach earlier today:

The remains of the Water Chute pool. The crane lifting the gears can be seen behind the pool. Contractor Jed Hopkinson and  the Trust's Susan Marsh The Water Chute gears being lifted. The main Water Chute motor. Susan Marsh, Ocean Beach owner Harold Robinson and Jed Hopkinson. The first boat to be rescued. Susan surveying the salvaged items: various motors, gears and boat. The first boat being lifted onto the trailer. Eric Marsh surveys the loading. More items are loaded onto the trailer. Spray motor and car safely strapped to the trailer. The Ocean Beach stairs are removed - the Dreamland Trust is not taking these! The steps are demolished. Eric and driver load the boat cladding. The final boat (minus its cladding) is loaded - this boat was undergoing restoration. The Campaign team at Ocean Beach, all items loaded. A last tie down. Ready to roll. The full load being taken to temporary storage in North Wales.

A photo gallery of the demolition of the ride, showing progress over the last few days, appears on relaunched amusement park history website, themagiceye. Click here for the gallery and here for an earlier gallery of Ocean Beach photographs.

In other news, last week (16th and 17th October) saw Susan Marsh attending the English Heritage Conference in Hastings, Seaside Heritage, colourful past, bright future, to represent the Dreamland Trust/Save Dreamland Campaign. There she met up with Campaign Leader and Dreamland Trust Chairman Nick Laister, who was attending for the two days on behalf of his company.

Susan reports: "It was a very interesting two days which saw many mentions of Margate, references to Dreamland and even the Campaign by speakers. By the last afternoon it was suggested from the platform that perhaps the ‘M’ word should be omitted as the conference was supposed to be about the whole of England!"

During one question and answer session the panel were asked to name their suggestions for the seaside town that was likely to prosper in the future and Margate was there on the list.

The first day was followed by a reception in Bexhill to launch the English Heritage book England's Seaside Resorts by Allan Brodie and Gary Winter. Nick and Susan spent time during all the breaks in the conference programme, and at the evening reception, talking to senior directors of several organisations attempting to raise the funds required to dismantle the Water Chute at Rhyl.

Susan then represented the Dreamland Trust and the Campaign at the launch of English Heritage’s book Margate's Seaside Heritage by Nigel Barker, Allan Brodie, Nick Dermott, Lucy Jessop and Gary Winter on 18 October at the Theatre Royal, which gave her another opportunity to attempt to find a benefactor for the Water Chute.

Whilst in Margate, Susan met with Derek Harding of the Margate Renewal Partnership, Jason Wood (the Heritage Consultant advising on the heritage amusement park proposals) and Professor John Walton (author of the acclaimed new book on the history of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Riding on Rainbows), to discuss the outcomes of the meeting with the Heritage Lottery Fund (previously reported) and the next steps for the project. Susan also had some discussions with Sandy Ezekiel, Leader of Thanet District Council , and he reaffirmed Council support for the work the Campaign and Trust are doing.

Any future planning applications for the Dreamland site will be considered against the brief, so it is important that your views are heard by the Council. To download the brief in full, click here. To view the summary brief on the Council's website, click here. If you can’t make the meeting, you can tell the Council what you think of the brief by filling in the online survey form here. The consultation ends on Friday 12 October 2007, so don’t delay - get your comments in now!

Finally, an update on recent local Dreamland-related news. The letters age of the Thanet Times on 25 September featured a further letter on the closure of the Dreamland Cinema.