The first bouncy castle was devised in Britain by John Scurlock in the late 1950’s. While experimenting with different designs and materials for covering tennis courts, Scurlock created an inflatable cover to protect the court from environmental damage. During the testing stages of his new idea Scurlock noticed that his employees could bounce on the air filled covers and that they appeared to be enjoying it!
After the idea of using the inflatable covers as entertainment for kids dawned on him, Scurlock founded his own company. Originally only inflatable walkways were produced and manufactured by the company. As these walkways grew in popularity Scurlock’s company started to experiment with new designs and began to add walls amongst other modifications. Windows were added and the design started to take shape until we arrived at the classic bouncy castle we all know and recognise today.
Article posted by the BIHA (Nov 2007) www.biha.org.uk