A plain sailing weekend as dozens of barges and narrowboats gather
DOZENS OF narrowboats and barges will travel to the 40th Boat Gathering at the National Waterways Museum this weekend.
The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port, which is run by the Canal & River Trust, hosts the Easter Boat Gathering.
This weekend’s event is the 40th anniversary with dozens of historic narrow boats and barges travelling from all over the country.
It is a weekend for boat owners to catch up with friends and showcase their remarkable craft, some of which are over 80 years old.
This year Leeds and Liverpool wide boat Kennet is joining the recently restored wooden wide boat George. Both are due to be crossing the River Mersey after the event.
Also being welcomed is the wooden fly-boat Saturn, the last boat of her type in the world which travels around providing educational visits for schoolchildren.
Music fans can look forward to a weekend of folk music performances
Waterway history will be explored by Heather Wastie and Kate Saffin in ‘Idle Women of the Wartime Waterways’.
Idle Women were nicknamed from the initials they wore whilst volunteering on the Inland Waterways during the Second World War.
Visitors can research their own unique waterway history in the Waterways Archive , which is a national collection of thousands of items, including documents, diaries, letters and photographs.
Children and families can enjoy music created especially for them by musician David Gibb, with the chance to sing and play along.