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The Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival takes place in June in the Cheshire town of Middlewich. The festival builds on the towns industrial heritage in which canal boats were used to move coal and other raw materials
in the town for the production of salt, and then move the salt out of town, either for use directly , or as a raw material
in the manufacture of chemicals such as Chlorine and soda ash.
The Middlewich Folk and Boat festival is now firmly established on the folk circuit and it is estimated that 30,000 people
visit the town during the festival weekend, along with 400 boats. The festival was originally organised by members of the Middlewich Paddies.
Since 1990 there has been an annual folk music and canal boat festival, which is now highly regarded on the folk circuit
with visitors coming into the town from all over the UK. During this festival artists appear at venues throughout the town,
whilst Morris Dancing and Craft Stalls also featured. The boating festival centres on the Trent and Mersey Canal. The main venues where people and boats converge are the Big Lock and Kings Lock, public houses next to locks of the same
name on the Trent and Mersey canal.
Artists/bands due to appear at MFAB, 2007 include Seth Lakeman, Richard Digance, New Rope String Band, Demon Barber Roadshow,
Family Mahone, Queensberry Rules, Show of Hands, Peeping Tom . . . watch this space for more soon.
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Bands/Artists Booked To Date
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Family Mahone
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| Phil Beer and Steve Knightley |
The Trent and Mersey Canal
Long and hard lobbying by the
potter Josiah Wedgwood lead to
the Trent and Mersey Canal
or "Grand Trunk" as it was often
known, being authorised in 1766
the official website
a little bit of history to be found
at Wikipedia
from Ian Loasby's collection
a canal mostly in Warwickshire,
Staffordshire, Shropshire and
Cheshire in the north-west
midlands of England. It links the
canals of the English Midlands
and North West to those in
North Wales, and also connects
a 93.5 miles (140 km) long canal
in the East Midlands, West Midlands,
and North West of England. It is mostly
a "narrow canal" (locks and bridges big
72 feet long x 7 feet wide, but east
locks and bridges can accommodate
boats 14ft wide.
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![Big Lock, Middlewich [click for larger image]](/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=https://talesfromthetowpath.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/middlewich-narrowboats-biglock.jpg&target=tlx_new)