Amusement Arcades come in all shapes and sizes. Most people…read moretoday think of an amusement arcade as something like a hall consisting of one-armed bandits, small kiddies roundabouts and a sitdown bingo link. Or maybe something more alabrate like Alton Towers Theme Park. But years ago in the somewhat posh area of Hunters Bar, Sheffield, people found their amusement in different ways. At the rear end of the Botanical Gardens you will find, hidden from view by dense trees and bushes, the remains of a Bear Pit. A large circular pit dug out off the soft earth, then lined with sandstones. It looks like they laid the stones as drystone walling because there's no sign of any motar between the stones. There's a large entrance at the rear, where obviously the bear was lead into the torturous pit, where we can assume the poor animal was torturously ill treated by the gawping men and women who leared over the top of the open pit. Thank God we've learnt to treat wild animals with respect these days and done away with these hidious amusement arcades of the 19th. Centruary. But having said that, if you're into historic amusements it's still interesting to see The Bear Pit, a true historic gem from days gone by.

A hive of over-excited kids revelling in the neon glows and beeps of the money-grabbing machines…read more If you're over the age of about 18, you'll feel positively ancient if you walk through this place as kids feed all their money into the machines to win tickets for some rubbish they could've probably bought ten times over with the money they've spent. There is a mini bowling alley but the word spherical can't really apply to the balls used as they show the scars from years of dedicated service to Sheffield's chav population. It gets three stars for trying to keep the hoodrats out of the rest of Meadowhall.

This used to be a great place to visit if you understood the logic of fruit machines…read more All day long, child after child would fill up the machines with their pocket money, leaving a well timed, clued up person able to come and take the small jackpots. This place is no more however, having closed around the time that Meadowhall's cinema was refurbished. So I'm not sure where those with thousands of Namco tickets saved up can go to exchange them for penny sweets!

Sherwood Forest Fun Park is located on the edge of Edwinstowe village.It is easily accessed on foot…read morefrom the village or from Sherwood Forest Visior Centre (reviewed seperately) If you've seen the leaflet they produce it lloks like a fun packed place, where you could spend a long time. Well the reality is different. There's probably a dozen rides in total, including a slide, a ghost train, hook-a-bag and some rides for the younger visitor. My daughter spent £1.50 on the hook-a-bag, managed to get the largest bag and inside was four or five items that would probably cost less than £1 in total. They only way I could describe this park is: imagine a the kind of fairground rides you would get at a small village fete.