FLIGHTS OF FANTASY Creative Play Limited
CUSTOM-MADE CHILDREN’S PLAY EQUIPMENT IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, WE CAN BUILD IT
www.flightsoffantasy.co.uk info@flightsoffantasy.co.uk (+44) 01485 544 114
General Brochure 2018
F L I G H T S O F FA N TA S Y / G E N E R A L B R O C H U R E
CONTENTS About Us 04
Our history as a company, what we stand for, and how Russell’s passion to build play equipment for his children led to the formation of this company.
Design Process 06
We have a simple ordering process that begins when you give us a call or send us an email to tell us about your idea.
New For 2018 08
Flights of Fantasy
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Creative Play Limited
2017 was a busy year and we took on lots of exciting new projects. Here is a selection of our new creations from the past year.
Our Past Creations
We can make everything from playhouses and play areas to combine harvestors and castles - if you can dream it, we can build it .
Public Play Area Map 35
GENERAL BROCHURE 2018 Copyright © 2018 FLIGHTS OF FANTASY CREATIVE PLAY LIMITED
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This is a map of the UK, showing our play areas that are accessible to the general public. Private installations are not included here for privacy.
Contact Us 36
If you’d like more information about us or you would like to discuss a potential idea, please get in touch with us today.
General Brochure 2018 Hello and welcome to the Flights of Fantasy Creative Play Limited downloadable brochure. We produce custom made play equipment by hand at our workshop in Norfolk, bringing your ideas to life. This brochure is an ’informal hello’ if you will, showcasing a selection of our past creations in order to demonstrate what we can do. For extensive pictures and information on our creations, please visit our website, www.flightsoffantasy.co.uk. To give you a little overview of our company, here are a few points about us and what we offer.
Bespoke Design
Worldwide Delivery
Everything that we make is hand made, hand painted, and completely bespoke, meaning that your piece of play equipment will be a totally unique, one of a kind creation.
Most of our work is in the UK and Europe, but we have also shipped to Asia, The Middle East, and North America, and can arrange to have your item delivered anywhere in the world.
Dedication to Quality
Ongoing Service
We are proud of what we do and believe in quality, not quantity. We work tirelessly to produce the highest quality pieces of play equipment that you can buy, anywhere in the world.
When you buy something from us, we see it as a lifelong commitment and offer ongoing maintenance and relocation support. We can even help you to sell an item if you move and no longer have space for it.
40 Years of Experience
Environmentally & Safety Conscious
Russell Bowlby, our founder, has been involved in the design industry for over forty years and we have a team of highly skilled craftsmen whose combined experience exceeds centuries.
Environmental sustainability and child safety are two vital concerns to the longevity of our industry and we take both responsibilities very seriously.
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ABOUT OUR COMPANY Meet Russell, Our Founder Meet Russell Bowlby, the founder and lead designer at Flights of Fantasy. Russell began his design career as an engineer for Lotus Cars before transitioning to specialist, historic building restoration. When he had his first son in the late 80s, he built the two storey Tudor Cottage playhouse that you can see above. It lived at the bottom of his garden for the next twenty-five years and was enjoyed by each of his subsequent three sons before finally being sold to a new family with young children so that it could continue to offer enjoyment for many more years - this is testament to the quality and durability of our products.
A Career Driven By Passion Flights of Fantasy wasn’t started as a business - it was started as a love for the fantastical, bringing dreams to life. Our workshop boasts a team of highly skilled craftsmen with a combined experience of over a century of working with wood. Coupled with Russell’s forty years of design experience and the desire to delight, we have found the perfect formula for making play equipment that is full of life and character, inspiring children to play.
The Wild Deck Company In addition to making bespoke play equipment, our sister company, The Wild Deck Company, specialises in making timber structures in natural settings including bird hides, boardwalks, dipping platforms, and lake houses amongst other things. Find our more on The Wild Deck Company website, www.thewilddeckcompany.co.uk.
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WHAT WE STAND FOR AS A COMPANY A company defines itself not only by the products it produces, but also by the way it conducts itself and its accountability. We believe in what we do as a company and our commitment to quality, service, safety, and the environment.
Quality Construction & Bespoke Design Everything that we make at Flights of Fantasy is completely bespoke. We don’t make stock products and if you come to us with an idea, no matter how fantastical, we will endeavour to bring it to life. With all of our creations we work with the best materials to produce high quality pieces of play apparatus that will be around for many years to come so that our play equipment, if maintained, can be passed from one generation to the next.
Environmental Responsibility At Flights of Fantasy we are passionate about the environment. From sourcing timber through to working and travelling, we endeavour to work efficiently and recycle or re-use everything we can. We only use timber that has been sustainably sourced and it is our policy not to use materials that do not have authentic, sustainability credentials. Where possible, we minimise our road travel to help reduce congestion and avoid excessive fossil fuel use. Wood offcuts are used to generate heat during winter, saving the ash for agricultural purposes, and metal is carefully scrapped.
Child Safety Through Intelligent Design At Flights of Fantasy, we put great emphasis on safety standards to ensure that everything we make, no matter the size, is safe for a child to use. All of our products are designed in line with British Standards EN1176 parts 1-7, and all of our play areas are inspected and risk assessed. We choose to conduct a non-compusorary initial safety report which includes the following considerations: the design of the piece and how and when it will be used; the materials used in the construction of the piece; the layout and positioning of play area items; natural hazards; and the need for safety fall surfaces, barriers, and gates.
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THE DESIGN PROCESS We like to make it as simple as possible to order from us. Below is an outline of our simple, three step ordering process. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss your idea as everything starts with the initial contact via phone or email.
Step One: Tell Us About Your Project Contact us for an initial discussion about your ideas and requirements. We’ll talk you through some different options and if you like the sound of what we have to offer, we will arrange a good time to visit to discuss things further. We can also give you a cost estimate and answer any initial questions you might have.
Step Two: Site Survey Our surveyor will visit your site to discuss the project in more depth and take note of details such as dimensions, positioning, and requirements, as well as climatic and landscaping constraints – we have installed play areas in very diverse locations, but we need to know what we are in for!
Step Three: Proposal A full, written proposal including design specifications, plans, costs, and time-frames will be prepared. If required, we can provide multiple costed options to find the best solution for your needs. We work hard to find a solution that works for your budget and specification.
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OUR PLANS Depending upon your needs, we offer a range of hand drawn and computer generated plans. These can be used to apply for funding where necessary.
Concept Sketches
Hand Drawn Plans
A hand-drawn concept sketch showing different perspectives gives you a good idea of what we have in mind for your project and allows changes to be made before we proceed to the construction phase.
Our hand-drawn plans give a clear idea of where everything in a play area will be located without going to the high precision levels of computer generated plans. We often combine these with concept sketches.
2D Computer Generated Plans
3D Rendered Computer Visualistions
We have the technological capabilities and expertise to produce high quality, scaled aerial plans.
The ultimate in realism, our 3D rendered visualisations will give you an idea of what your play area will look like before we have even started building it.
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NEW FOR 2018 2017 proved to be an extremely busy year as we undertook many new projects across the UK and beyond. It’s been an absolute pleasure to keep pushing our creative boundaries as more people find out who we are and what we can do. From pirate playgrounds to replica arks, we don’t have enough space to fit everything here, but over these next couple of pages you will find a small selection of new creations from last year. Due to these space limitations, you will find other new creations on our website.
Ffolkes Arms Adventure Play Area The Ffolkes Arms Hotel enjoyed an extensive refit, inside and out, totalling two million pounds. “Think Poldark, think pewter, copper, Hessian, leather, soft velvet, and rustic wood,” was how they described the transformation. We created a rustic adventure playground in keeping with the rest of the renovation.
Folly Farm Pirate Playground Based upon Black Bart, arguably the most famous Welsh pirate of all time and the most successful in terms of ships captured - he captured over 400 during the Golden Age of Piracy - we built a pirate themed adventure playground for Folly Farm in Wales. It features many pirate themed props including treasure chests, bones, and skulls.
Anderton Boat Lift Miniature One of only two working boat lifts in the UK, we built a play area next to this Canal & River Trust managed visitor attraction to offer greater appeal to families. The design captures many elements of the real boat lift, located just behind, and even features a play boat.
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Robert Burns Birthplace Museum The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayr celebrates the childhood home of one of Scotland’s favourite sons, the world renown poet, Robert Burns. We built a themed play area that engages children whilst following the Robert Burns theme, allowing children to immerse themselves in the world of years gone by and learn whilst having fun.
Chestnut Wood Adventure Playground Chestnut Wood Adventure Play Area is a rustic outdoor play area that we built for Knockhatch Adventure Park in Hailsham. The aim was to make an engaging play area that fit into the natural surroundings. We designed and built a play area that features several interconnected towers, all made from hand stripped sweet chestnut.
Little Kings Indoor Beach Play Area Little Kings Holiday Park is a family run holiday park in Pembrokeshire that caters for families and looks out to the sea of south-west Wales. Accordingly, they asked us to create an indoor play area for young children that follows a beach theme. We incorporated nautical props and a VW camper - it is a campsite after all!
Giant Animal Sculptures We wove thousands of lengths of willow around steel frames to make these huge animal structures at Rushden Lakes. We made a triptych of starlings on a bird table, two swallows racing, a swan, and a hare as well as several wooden animal carvings and a heron nest play area.
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OUR PAST CREATIONS
Everything that we make is completely bespoke. Over the next few pages you will find a small collection of our past creations. Use these as inspiration for your project and take a look at our website for further ideas.
OUTDOOR PLAY AREAS
PLAY APPARATUS
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PLAYHOUSES
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TREE HOUSES
PLAY CASTLES
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INDOOR PLAY AREAS
PIRATE SHIPS
TRAINS
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TRIM TRAILS
MACHINES
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REPLICA LANDMARKS & MINIATURES
FURNITURE
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MULTI PLAY TOWERS
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SEATING
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CARVINGS
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OUTDOOR PLAY AREAS Bespoke Play Area Designs Whether you are looking for commercial playground equipment, an adventure playground for a school or community, a rustic, woodland play area for your garden, or any other type of outdoor play area, we are experts in designing safe, durable, and engaging play areas for children and families of all ages. We can take care of everything from start to finish – planning, design, landscaping, and construction - to make your perfect outdoor play area.
Use Our Past Designs As Inspiration On the following pages, you will find a small selection of our past play areas. Use these as inspiration for your own project and take a look at our website for a detailed look at each play area, as well as others not featured in this brochure. As we are always working on new content, we will continue to add our new projects to the website, showcasing our ever growing play area collection.
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FEATURES OF OUR DESIGN SERVICES We are proud of everything that we make at Flights of Fantasy and it is passion that drives us in our neverending quest to produce the most engaging and aesthetically pleasing play areas available anywhere in the world. Due to the success of our installations, clients come back to us time and time again, and a lot of our business comes from word of mouth reccomendations. Below are a few features of our play area design services that have built our reputation over the years.
Bespoke Design
Rustic Play Area Design
Themed Play Areas
There are very few – if any – play equipment companies in the UK that do quite what we do. We don’t have stock products and we don’t mass produce anything: Every single item of play equipment that we produce is hand made and one off.
Using local materials wherever possible and retaining the organic, warped features of logs and branches, our natural play areas are environmentally friendly and sympathetic to their surroundings, making them particularly suitable for natural settings.
We love to have a theme to follow in our play designs and some of our most impressive play areas have featured miniature replicas of stately homes, famous landmarks, trains, and other machinery. We can incorporate any theme into our designs and relish the challenge.
Apparatus Customisations
Return On Investment
Funding & Grants Assistance
Although every play area is unique, there are always traditional play elements, tried and tested through the years, that we like to incorporate into our designs. The play equipment features are fully customisable and include traditional pieces of play equipment such as slides, swings, and roundabouts, through to climbing apparatus and some of our own unique creations.
We understand that a play area, as part of a commercial venue, carries with it an uncertainty. Drawing on our many years of experience, we can discuss any plans you might have in advance so that you can be sure that a commissioned play area will provide a satisfactory return on investment. We see a play area as a long term investment in your business and will help you to realise these targets.
If your intended play area is dependent on a successful funding application then let us know so that we can help it succeed. When quoting for a project we provide a written proposal, design sketches, example photographs, and accurate costings before any decision is made. By involving us early in the process we can more accurately tailor the design to the project so that it answers the brief of your funding, improving the likelihood of funding being awarded. F L I G H T S O F FA N TA SY C R E AT IVE PLAY G E N E R A L B R O C H U R E 2018
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OUR OUTDOOR PLAY AREAS
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These pages showcase a small selection of the outdoor play areas that we have made in the past. Each play area is custom built to the specific needs of the site.
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CUSTOM PLAY APPARATUS
Any piece of play apparatus can be incorporated into any of our designs. Ranging from traditional pieces that you will remember from your childhood through to play features you have probably never see before, here is a selection of some of the play apparatus we have incorporated into our designs in the past.
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CHILDREN’S PLAYHOUSES
Flights of Fantasy came into existence after the creation of our very first playhouse and we are proud to continue making high quality, long lasting structures that are finished to the highest standard. Often spread over two storeys, many of our playhouses incorporate insulation, heating, full electrics, and kitchens. Fully functional, they truly are miniature versions of houses.
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INTERIOR STYLING
The interiors of our play houses are finished to the absolute highest quality with hand made furniture and custom made furnishings. For inspiration, here are a few interiors from our past playhouses.
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CASTLES & FORTS
Wooden Castles, Forts, and Castle Playhouses are one of our most flexible creations. Capable of being designed for almost any space or size, our play castles are infinitely customisable and everything, from the layout to the walls, play features and even flags or emblems, can be made just how you want them to be.
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TREE HOUSES We have made tree houses for public and private installations, some of which feature open platforms whilst others feature highly detailed interiors that are finished to a high level with full electrics and heating. Whatever you desire, we can make.
INTERIOR STYLING
Like our play houses, the interiors of our tree houses can be finished to the absolute highest quality with hand made furniture and custom made furnishings, depending upon your needs. Let us know what you are looking for and we will come up with something.
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TRAINS
Our trains never fail to delight. Whether you want a single wooden play train as a feature in your garden, or a centrepiece for a large play area, complete with station and carriages, we can make this happen. Our past trains have been play replicas of existing trains with play features incorporated into their design.
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PIRATE SHIPS
Every child loves to play at being a swashbuckling adventurer and what better way to do it than with their very own pirate ship? Ranging from miniature pirate ships suitable for indoor use to 35 foot pirate galleons and pirate themed play areas for schools and public areas, our pirate ships will ignite the imagination of adults and children alike.
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INDOOR PLAY AREAS
We can create engaging indoor play areas for commercial venues, adding real value to your business. Just like our outdoor play areas, we are specialists in creating themed play equipment and our indoor designs are no exception. Using decades of experience, we can design, manufacture, and install an indoor play area that utilises the space you have available, offering optimal play potential and engagement.
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TRACTORS & MACHINES
Our play tractors and farm machinery create fantastic centrepieces for any themed play area. We can emulate existing models, use any colour scheme, and include corporate branding to create a fun focal point at a venue or, for our domestic clients, we can create a fully customisable piece of play farm machinery for the garden.
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TRIM TRAILS Offering the ability to exercise and keep fit outdoors, a trim trail is an excellent way to promote health and fitness in a community whilst getting people out of the house. When coupled with one of our outdoor play areas, they are also an excellent way of offering engaging activities for adults and older children in a play environment., encouraging families to extend their visits. Overleaf you will find a selection of trim trail apparatus we have included in our trim trails in the past.
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REPLICAS & MINIATURES When designing themed play areas, we are often asked to replicate famous structures or private homes in a miniature version that is safe for children to play on. We can recreate just about anything in play form and in the past we have made castles, ships, trains, farm equipment, and stately homes, representative of their real life counterparts. We can then add play apparatus and education features into the design. Shown here are some of our miniatures and their real-life counterparts.
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If you’re looking for custom made children’s furniture or themed beds, ranging from treasure chest toy boxes through to pirate themed beds, and themed desks through to princess styled wardrobes, then we can help. At Flights of Fantasy we design and construct high quality, bespoke children’s furniture to the highest quality and to any specification. From the smallest item to a completely themed bedroom or playroom, we can make any dream a reality.
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MULTI PLAY TOWERS
We can construct unique multi play equipment and wooden climbing frames for outdoor play areas, gardens, and playgrounds, either as standalone features or as part of larger play areas. Built to provide as many play features as possible, these multi play towers and frames are infinitely variable and can be customised to incorporate play apparatus elements in a number of ways.
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SEATING
When you have lots of visitors who want to spend the day exploring your grounds, seating is of the utmost importance. Having a picnic area or benches allows people to stay longer than rumbly bellies and tired legs permit. At Flights of Fantasy we create custom made seating and rest areas, both to compliment our play areas and as stand alone, functional seating. From themed, carved benches to elaborate picnic areas, we’re able to create park and street furniture for a wide range of locations.
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SCULPTURES & CARVINGS
A sculpture can bring a play area to life and will be remembered by children, encouraging them to revisit. We can produce ground mounted or post mounted scultptures and typically produce nature carvings based on local wildlife. We have also made several steel framed sculptures, finished with hand woven willow and we are willing to undertake any new creative challenges that you might be able to dream up.
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UK PUBLIC PLAY AREA MAP Below is a map of our UK based public play areas. This map is constantly growing as we expand our portfolio, but it does not include any private or inaccessible play areas - such as in school playgrounds. You can view a full, interactive version of the map with links to each of the play areas on our website.
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CONTACT US
FLIGHTS OF FANTASY Creative Play Limited
www.flightsoffantasy.co.uk info@flightsoffantasy.co.uk (+44) 01485 544114
Thank you for taking the time to look through our brochure. We hope this has given you an idea about what it is that we do at Flights of Fantasy. Please take a look at our website for more detailed information and if you have a project in mind, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us via phone or email and we will walk you through the design process.
Flights of Fantasy Creative Play, Unit 2, Fern Hill, Dersingham, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE31 6HT, UK