Shropshire Magazine

It’s not just those who enjoy life on board who benefit from the boat festival – tourists who flock to see the boats are a boon to the local economy.

Ben Bentley takes to the towpath as Ellesmere expects a festive flotilla of boats. Pictures: Ken Done

Rodney Upton has been stocking up on cheese. Wensleydale to be precise. Then there’s the small matter of borrowing fluffy sheep from his partner’s brother’s children and building a pretend spaceship.

Yes, his boat will look nice.

Rodney is just one of scores of narrow-boat enthusiasts who are decorating their craft for mooring at the 18th annual Ellesmere Boat Rally between September 12 and 14, in tandem with the Ellesmere Town Festival.

Normally a brightly painted bucket or a neatly arranged pot of pretty flowers would suffice in brightening up boats on the waterways, but this year the rally takes on the theme of cartoons. Participants are expected to adorn their many vessels with Scooby Doos, Toms and Jerries and, perhaps, the odd Top Cat.

An avid fan of Wallace and Gromit, Rodney himself has spent the last few weeks locked away in his garage secretly crafting a display of his favourite characters, including an impressive array of Shaun the sheep, and re-creating famous scenes from the characters’ films to mount on his boat, Ruston.

And of course, purchasing the pair’s favourite food for the occasion.

“I’ve got to get a stockpile of Wensleydale cheese because that’s what Wallace and Gromit like,” he smiles.

Life on the water is conducted at a different pace . . .

The rally, in which around 60 narrow boats moor up near the wharf at Ellesmere for a techicoloured celebration of the waterways, is run by the Shropshire Union Canal Society and features towpath stalls, a spectacular firework display and illuminated boats and music performed by the Shrewsbury Concert Band.

Although it offers free entry to the general public, any funds raised help a number of ongoing projects, which, since its formation in 1969, has included the restoration to navigability of the Montgomery Canal from Frankton to Newtown, and is active with enhancement work on the whole of the Shropshire Union Canal system.

The rally itself costs around £7,000 to stage but last year’s rally more than made up for this, going on to raise enough cash to fund a further £7,000 worth of volunteer labour for various waterways projects.

But there is another positive aspect to the rally. Its growing popularity is hugely important to the town itself, bringing in extra revenue to an area that some two decades ago was badly affected by the closure of the town’s biggest employer at the creamery on the wharf at Ellesmere, around which stretch of the Llangollen Canal the rally is based.

The boat festival is centred around the Wharf in Ellesmere.

With so many people converging on the site, it is estimated that the value of the rally to the town’s economy could be worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Rodney, who is part of the promotions team for the rally and works to get traders involved, says: “It helps dramatically. It brings in a lot of trade and the vast majority of the traders are extremely supportive. Ninety-nine per cent of them give us help towards it and there are shops open on the Sunday that are not normally open.

“The rally coincides with Ellesmere Festival and we get three- or four thousand people coming along, just wandering along the towpath and it brings more people into the town. Every year it gets bigger.

“Some people make it part of their boating holiday, they come here and it’s a nice break in the middle.”

The development of the wharf site of the old creamery into a public space is also planned to feature a supermarket, a pub, and a residential home.

“The development has caused a lot of upheaval and it’s caused a bit of separation between the town and the canal, but the rally and the town festival bring it all together.

“This year, with it being the 25th anniversary of the town festival it makes it even more special.”

Society member Paul Mills, who has been helping to organise the rally for the last seven years, adds: “The boats make a very big contribution to the local economy.

“The object is to promote the waterways, have a good time and bring in extra revenue for the town and the society. We bring 60 boats that all have family and friends on board, plus 50 boats that are not part of the rally, then you’ve got members of the public coming along to watch – so it must be a considerable amount.”

Quota

The rally reached its quota for boats as long ago as last November and its growing popularity provides something of a welcome headache for harbourmaster Brian Holmes. Brown as a berry from the outdoor life, in the countdown to the event he is spotted marching the stretch of the canal where the rally is based, pushing along what looks like a unicycle.

Except on closer inspection it’s not a unicycle – it’s a measuring device. It’s been part of Brian’s job to ensure that along the winding stretch, moorings are measured out for the boats.

“It’s driving me around the bend,” he jokes.

Any headaches are a distant memory by the time the rally begins and the spirit of such a relaxed, friendly affair takes over. Perhaps the pace of life for boaters – which is officially 4mph maximum – has something to do with it, but it is like a street party on water.

Boaters who perhaps have not seen each other since last year’s festival, mingle and share a joke, and with cartoons being the theme there’s bound to be fun and games.

Life on the water is conducted at a different pace . . .

Says Rodney: “It’s great fun. Last year we were moored by a bench and over the weekend, through making tea and coffee for people, we got through 14 pints of milk.”

Rodney’s Wallace and Gromit display has got a lot to live up to. Last year his boat was festooned with decorations based on his observations of the oil crisis and featured broken down haulage wagons, trains on the buffers and grounded aeroplanes.

Rodney explains: “And I did a nursery rhyme saying that after all this has ended, what have we got? A narrowboat with a horse pulling it.”

His efforts were rewarded with a prestigious second place.

• For more information about the rally visit www.shropshireunion.org.uk