Water nice way to spend a weekend
AFTER months of planning, the 20th Moira Canal Festival will take place this weekend.
Organisers say final preparations are under way for a Saturday and Sunday full of entertainment, including Britain’s Got Talent finalists, a flyover, classic cars, dancing and a duck race.
Geoff Pursglove has been on the committee since the first festival in 2000. He said: “We think we have everything covered, but there is usually something we haven’t thought of!
“But after 20 years it should be okay on the day. All we need is good weather.”
The festival is on the Moira Furnace site. The imposing furnace building, one of the best-preserved Napoleonic-era blast furnaces in Europe, dominates the site, complemented by the restored, currently isolated length of the Ashby Canal.
Among the attractions over the weekend will be the D Day Darlings. The Britain’s Got Talent finalists are the headline act, but other attractions include the falconry display, visiting boats, live bands, morris dancers, and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will see the Avro Lancaster make an appearance. There will also be a welcome return of Mother Duck and her duck race.
Ashby Canal was completed in 1804, built to carry coal from the mines of the South Derbyshire and North Leicestershire coalfield.
One of the main promoters of the canal was a local businessman Joseph Wilkes.
He had interests including mining, shipping, weaving, clayware and cotton spinning, and owned his own bank, as well as being a contractor to the Ashby Canal Company and treasurer. He is remembered in the name of the historic trip boat at the Furnace – the Joseph Wilkes.
The Ashby Canal restoration project first saw light around 1990, following the closure of the last coal mines in the area, which had been responsible for the subsidence which closed the canal in the first place.
Proceeds will go towards maintaining the current length of canal and assisting with the ongoing restoration of the Ashby Canal, north from Snarestone.