Historic boats for Transport Festival

Historic narrow boats are starting to arrive in Audlem, ready for the Festival of Transport this coming Sunday. Early arrivals are Saturn, the Shropshire Union Canal fly boat, built in Chester in 1906 as a horse drawn boat for carrying cheese, and recently restored to its original condition, and Thea, which dates from 1936.

We would encourage all visitors to the Festival of Transport to go to the canal wharf to see all the boats. After all, the arrival of the canal in Audlem in 1835 was in economic terms probably the most important point in the transport history of the village (apart perhaps from the impending detrunking of the A525!), and certainly much of the present village centre would have been built to respond to the trade on the new canal.

Many more historic boats are expected to arrive at the canal wharf over the next few days, and they present a wonderful spectacle.

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.