A Yorkshire fruit farm is refusing to back down after its Titanic-themed ride sparked a wave of online anger, insisting the attraction is a tribute to one of history’s most famous disasters rather than a mockery of it.
Pick Your Own Fruit Farm in Beverley has found itself at the centre of a heated debate after photos of the ride circulated on social media, showing a replica ship setup that lets visitors experience a dramatised version of the 1912 sinking. Critics were quick to pile on, calling it disrespectful to the 1,500 people who lost their lives when the real Titanic went down in the North Atlantic.
But the farm is not budging. Owners say the ride was built with genuine respect for the disaster and that keeping the story alive for younger generations is exactly the kind of thing attractions like theirs should be doing. They argue that museums, films, and exhibitions have been doing the same thing for decades, and a farm ride is no different.
“People have been fascinated by the Titanic for over a hundred years,” a spokesperson for the farm said. “We wanted to bring that history to life in a way that families could engage with. There is nothing disrespectful about remembering what happened.”
The backlash has been fierce on social media, with some users describing the ride as tone-deaf and others questioning whether a fruit farm is really the right setting for a tragedy that killed hundreds of ordinary working-class passengers, many of whom never even had a fighting chance at survival given the shortage of lifeboats.
Some of the strongest criticism has come from Titanic heritage groups, who feel that commercialising the disaster in this way cheapens the memory of those who died. They point out that many of the victims were emigrants travelling in third class, hoping for a better life in America, and that their stories deserve more solemn recognition.
Still, the farm has its supporters too. Plenty of visitors have defended the attraction online, saying it got their kids genuinely interested in the history behind it and that the execution was handled thoughtfully. Some pointed out that the Titanic has inspired everything from a blockbuster Hollywood film to a Las Vegas exhibition, so singling out a small English farm seems a bit much.
The Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. More than 1,500 people died, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. The tragedy has never really left the public consciousness, spawning countless books, documentaries, and yes, tourist attractions across the world.
In Belfast, where the ship was built, there is an entire museum dedicated to it that pulls in hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Southampton, where many of the crew came from, has its own memorials and exhibitions. The Titanic is, by any measure, a fully commercialised piece of history at this point.
Whether a ride at a Yorkshire fruit farm crosses a line that a glossy Belfast museum does not is, it seems, very much in the eye of the beholder.
The farm says it has no plans to remove the attraction and hopes the controversy will eventually die down. In the meantime, they are reportedly seeing a spike in visitor interest, which suggests that for every person outraged online, there are plenty of others who are simply curious to see what all the fuss is about.
Honestly good on them for not caving to the mob. It’s their farm, their ride, let people make their own choices about what they find tasteless or not.