Holiday Diary

Dear Diary, 

Well after having far too much fun over the last few days (and a serious lack of internet connection) I have finally got around to uploading my photos from the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival. On Friday we left our mooring spot on the branch to see how near to Middlewich we could get and when we tagged onto the last moored boat we were still about a mile back! It was nice to be away from the madness though...

Two tiny fluffy pompoms, also known as moorhen chicks

The Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union in an underrated link canal with plenty of great rural moorings

Still lots of tiny ducklings around

And cygnets

Looking back to where we've been, leaving the hills behind

Lots of interesting boats as we walk into the main festival

Lots of old working boats have made the trip to be here

A riot of colour

Converted working boat Thea, we saw this at the Ellesmere Port festival recently and it is a stunning boat

Butty Saturn, we went inside the cabin a couple of years ago which is beautifully original and unrestored

Nose to tail

The 'rings' on the back counter can help identify the boatbuilders, the one on the left with two is a Harland and Woolf and the one on the right with three is a Yarwoods

Similarly, the bow shapes are different styles so the one on the left can be identified as a 'Northwich' built by Yarwoods and the other which is a "Woolwich' built by Harland and Woolf

An example of a 'cabin block' that the top planks rest on, we have a decorated vent on the front deck of nb Mervyn similar in shape in a nod to traditional design

Some working boats have been converted with cabins added to make living space as with the one on the left, some of these were done many years ago and are classed as historic in their own right

Lindisfarne playing in the main festival field - worth watching just so we could sing along to 'Fog on the Tyne' in terrible Geordie accents

Working boat Tench being used as a floating bar

We finished the evening in the Kings Lock pub venue where radio DJ Mark Radcliffe was playing with his latest band 'Galleon Blast'

It certainly was a blast and so was the whole weekend, in fact the whole trip!