Stinky time capsule at Alton Towers Resort celebrates AromaPrime’s 50th birthday

To celebrate the 50th birthday of Rochdale’s AromaPrime, which makes smells for theme parks, Alton Towers Resort has added a smelly time capsule to its archive.

Founded in 1973, AromaPrime became the world’s first scenting company to specialise in theme parks and museums, and has been working with Alton Towers since the early 1990s to create fantastical pongs at the theme park.

Roller coaster designer John Wardley first worked with AromaPrime in 1989 to create a damp crypt smell for Chessington World of Adventures’ Vampire ride. Following the success of this project, John and the Sparks Group approached AromaPrime again in 1991 to find spooky scents for Alton Towers’ Haunted House dark ride.

Since then, Alton Towers Resort has scented many of its rides, with a custom alien egg nest stench for Nemesis Sub-Terra, a smoky woodsmoke scent for the Wicker Man roller coaster and a musty aroma for Hex, to name a few.

To mark AromaPrime’s 50th birthday, and celebrate the long-time collaboration with Alton Towers Resort, the new time capsule has been filled with the park’s many iconic whiffs, sealed for another half-century.

Liam R. Findlay, Theme Park & Historical Scenting Consultant for AromaPrime, said: “It is brilliant to celebrate the strong and creative bond we have with Alton Towers Resort. So many visitors to the theme park have fond memories connected to the smells we have created together.

“It was exciting to fill our time capsule with smells like Woodsmoke, Cabbage Soup and Musty, with the idea that those who open it up in another 50 years can sniff what the park once smelt like – time travel via smell!

“This year’s smell celebrations are extra special for me, because I also recently published my children’s novel The Doom Town Dummies. This has been inspired by AromaPrime and its unusual use of smells, as the protagonist has special sniffing powers.

“I look forward to creating new atmospheric smells for the new and exciting attractions Alton Towers is sure to create going forward.”