W3 – Whaley Bridge’s unique Water Weekend

W3 – the Whaley Bridge Water Weekend takes place on Saturday 11 June and Sunday 12 June 2011.

Whaley Bridge Town Council provides substantial grants to help this event to go ahead. Most of the festive fun will take place around the canal basin at Whaley Bridge, the picturesque ‘end of the line’ of an arm from the Peak Forest Canal.  Boat trips will once again be the main attraction, with music, dancing, craft stalls, food and nearby pubs to add to the party mood.

Waiting in 2010 sunshine for their boat to come in

The Water Weekend began with the millennium, and was a success from the start.  In 2010, as the event  entered its second decade, W3 boat trips broke all recorda: an astonishing 1,400 or so passengers enjoyed the canal experience in our little armada  of boats.

Little Armada; three of the trip boats at W3 2010

Most of the events are close to the canal basin, once visited by Princess Diana.  Locals are divided between calling a grassy, wooded area alongside the basin The Mound or The Royal Green.  This is the area where many children’s activities take place, including Punch and Judy, and where the boat trippers queue for tickets and wait patiently for their boat to arrive.

Across the water, a covered stage provides the setting for a non-stop variety of music and morris dancing.   In 2010, a runaway success was the visit by meerkats, those stand-up, cute little African animals made famous by TV commercials.  A return visit in 2011 is promised.

One of the boats takes people on the Heritage Trip to Bugsworth Basin, reopened after years of voluntary work restoring this early Industrial Revolution gem.  Passengers hear a full commentary of how limestone was brought to Bugsworth, processed, then carried further down the canal to places such as Stockport and Manchester, and beyond.  Bugsworth was once the biggest inland port in England.

In the green: the canal is a beautiful setting

Other trip boats, including Phoenix, take people on the shorter journey under the green trees as far as the canal junction.  Phoenix has a romantic history.  It was formerly a canal narrowboat , North Star, which was vandalised, burned and partly sunk on the canal near Marple in 2005.  Months of hard work by two young brothers, Paul and Michael Dawson, who run Trafalgar Marine Services at New Mills, restored the boat.  It ended up smaller than the original 42ft.  In 2006, Phoenix made its maiden voyage on the Heritage Trip at W3.

Fuller information about the 2011 Water Weekend will appear here closer to the event and on the WWW website at  http://whaleywaterweekend.co.uk/

Your village needs you! Volunteers wanted to help on the big weekend.

Contacts:

•  Barry Rudd, secretary, on 01663 733 003 or 07836 258 883.
•  treasurer Eveline Hughes on 016633 733 597 or 07916 257 292.
•  fundraising co-ordinator James Middleton on 01663 733224.