Magazine articles about Audlem

Each month last year, the Audlem Online team sent a 500-word article about the village to the publishers of the Whitchurch Gossip and Market Drayton Gossip magazines.

These are widely (and freely) distributed in North Shropshire and many in Audlem see a copy, particularly of the Whitchurch magazine. Many of our readers, however, are outside their distribution area.

We thought you might like to read what we said about the village earlier this month in the January 2012 issues that were illustrated by Steve Hyder's splendid photograph of the locks.

Audlem in 2012

After a successful 2011, Audlem is looking to the new year with major events already being booked into an ever-busier calendar.

The Festive Season saw possibly the busiest Carols in the Square a couple of days before Christmas, helped by an evening temperature 23°C warmer than the previous year’s communal singing event.

In the company of Cheshire East’s mayor, ADAS, the Audlem District Amenities Society, made a special presentation to the leader of the Crewe Brass Band who have played in all weathers at Audlem for twenty five years.

Next up on the village’s favourite events is the annual panto by local theatre group, the 5As. Written by Colin Cliffe, this year’s production in the Public Hall is Alison Wunderland. It runs for five performances from 25 – 28th January with evening shows at 7.30pm while Saturday also sees a 2.00pm matinee. 

The Audlem Music & Arts Festival gets bigger, and seemingly better, each year with 2012’s festival running from 31st May to 5th June, a week later than normal to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The Audlem Carnival will be on 4th June.

One of the great successes of last year was the Audlem Lass boat service on the Shropshire Union. It will return to weekend and Bank Holiday service on the canal between the bottom of the Audlem Locks and Overwater Marina at Easter, again raising money for RNLI.

The Shropshire Union canal through Audlem attracted recognition of high order – it made it into The Top 10 Canal Trips in the World in the National Geographic book along with, amongst others, the Panama and New York State canals and the wonderful canals of Copenhagen and Amsterdam. 

With Audlem’s towpath said to be amongst the finest lowland walks in England, such an accolade is hardly a surprise, although the omission of the canals of Venice from the Top 10 was!

An added bonus this year will be a very special ‘Safety Afloat’ day at Overwater Marina on 24th June – more as details are finalised.

The marina itself finished last year on a high with two major awards – the South Cheshire Chamber award for the best new start-up business for 2011 and it was awarded 5 gold anchors by the British Marina Federation / Yacht Harbour Association -  the only Inland Marina to ever receive 5 Gold Anchors*!

Boaters, walkers, cyclists, pub and music lovers remain the back-bone of Audlem’s visitor numbers with many enjoying a pint in the village’s three pubs. Live music flourishes with bands playing every week plus the famed Folk Jam evenings on Mondays at the Shroppie Fly.

The Lord Combermere’s Thursday night music evenings were a notable success last year with local music impresario Reub attracting numerous top bands to the village, many of whom also played at the Music & Arts Festival.

Top outfits like the Travelling Band, the Rainband, the Reads and Modern Alarms have become regular visitors and receive a great reception every time.

*We understand another marina has since received this award too – but Overwater was the first.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.