Leek IWA Press Release
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CRUISING TO STOKE-ON-TRENT CANALS FESTIVAL
Via the Caldon Canal - the waterway from the Peak to the Potteries
The Inland Waterways Association's narrow boat Jubilee is heading along the Caldon Canal to join in this weekend's Stoke-on-Trent Canals Festival at Etruria Industrial Museum, having visited Leek for the market town's hugely successful Leek End Week-end Canal Festival.
At Leek, thousands of people enjoyed a stroll along the canal towing path to see the boats gathered to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the restoration of the Caldon Canal and hundreds of children took part in the WOW - Wild Over Waterways - children's activities. On board Jubilee, they tried their hand at canal art; tiny tots through to cool teenagers designed their own boat name and livery - creating their own colour scheme and sign writing and adding traditional 'rose and castles'. Aboard narrow boat Sagitta - Staffordshire County Council's floating education initiative - everybody explored how a family used to live in the small cabin of a working boat, as well as discovering how many more miles of canals Staffordshire has than any other county. Both boats will be at Stoke-on-Trent Canals Festival on Saturday and Sunday 5th and 6th June 2004.
The Inland Waterways Association is part of the partnership of Staffordshire Moorlands waterway volunteer groups that staged the Leek Canal Festival. Chairman of the local IWA Stoke-on-Trent branch, Julie Arnold, said, "Boaters journeyed from all over the UK canal network to be at our event - from London, Nottingham and Yorkshire. Having explored the Caldon Canal to both Leek and Froghall, many are now on their way to Etruria. The Caldon is the canal that goes from the Potteries to the Peak. Encouraging people to visit such events by boat is just one of the many ways we help promote Stoke-on-Trent, the Staffordshire Moorlands and encourage sustainable economic regeneration. Other volunteers from the Leek Canal Festival team - members from IWA, Caldon Canal Society and Stoke-on-Trent Boat Club - will also be supporting the festival at Etruria Industrial Museum."
Angela Graham, assistant branch museums manager said: "Many historic narrow boats are also travelling from Leek to the Stoke-on-Trent Canals Festival. Volunteers from IWA, local Canal Societies and the Boat Club regularly support the museum at Etruria; we are so pleased they are joining us again this year and linking north Staffordshire events in this way."
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