Canalside event is a cracker
Visitors to a canalside festival stepped back in time with horse power, ancient crafts and vintage musical instruments among the stars of the show.
The Maesbury Canal Fayre was held in the grounds of Canal Centre alongside the Montgomery Canal south of Oswestry.
As well as promoting the canal the weekend raised funds for the Friends of Montgomery Canal Trust.
There was a nostalgic note to the weekend.
Music was provided by the Shropshire Boatmen and also from the Hurdy Gurdy man who raises money for charity taking his old time musical instrument to shows across the country. Children and adults alike were fascinated by the instrument, that works by running special hole punched cards through it.
The Shropshire Boatmen are a shanty crew who sing to keep alive the connection between Britain's inland waterways and the international seafaring trade.
" We are keen to support events and festivals that are working to restore our inland waterways or which raise funds for water safety, both inland and at sea," John Hooker from the group said.
The group also supports the Shropshire based Saturn Flyboat a horse drawn boat that was also at the canal fayre along with its popular heavy horse, Cracker.
The last surviving wooden Shropshire Union “Fly-boat”, built in Chester in 1906, Saturn's job was to rush cheese and produce, fresh from the farms of Cheshire and Shropshire, to the markets of the industrial towns and cities, running 24 hours, day and night.
Visitors were able to learn more about the history and heritage of fly-boats and the Montgomery canal in general.
Craftworkers, many connected to the canal set up stalls in the grounds of Canal Central, selling their wares.
Some of them were selling goods from their own narrowboats moored up along the canal.
The Friends of Montgomery Canal have been raising funds to restore the waterway, which ran from the junction with the Llangollen Canal at Lower Frankton near Ellesmere, to Newtown in mid Wales.
Restoration is well underway with sections of the canal navigable through Shropshire, around Welshpool and in Newtown. But major work still has to take place to see it fully re-opened.
