Banbury's Canal Day

Sunday 14th October 2018 in Banbury (by car).
One of the reasons for getting back to Aston Marina by this weekend was in order for us to drive down to Banbury for the annual "Canal Day". It is always a popular festival but this year has special significance as it is the 240th anniversary of the famous Tooley's Yard - the oldest inland boat yard in the country still operating.
Saturday was wet and blustery, but R still washed MM down in a brief window of dry weather.

Sunday morning started brighter, but it had rained heavily in the night so the roads around Cropredy, north of Banbury, were under water.

We couldn't help but smile at this road name in Cropredy - what fun to say that you live in a Cup and Saucer!

It was still raining in Banbury; fortunately, the rain did not seem to have put off the crowds. The "Canal Day" attracts many narrowboat traders and it was lovely to see nb "Muddy Waters" there; the inspiration for a series of children's books about the canals.

An even more welcome sight was the "Cheese Boat"; we always buy some Welsh cheese from them whenever we see them and jolly tasty it is too.

A very pleasant surprise was to see Ray and Audrey on their boat "Livien 'G'". They too were here as traders but unfortunately the rain prevented them from displaying Audrey's jars of her delicious homemade lemon curd and her other crafts. They sell these to raise money for an African charity but sadly were unable to set out their stall today because of the rain, so left early.

The festival is naturally centred on Tooley's Yard. The forge even pre-dates the canal as it was built to service tools for the navvies who built the canal. It was here that R did his blacksmith course last week.

The Yard also has a large dry dock and at present it contains nb "Hardy", an original wooden working boat built in 1940 which is undergoing restoration - a massive project. It had been under water for four years, but was raised and towed to Banbury - where very recently someone on a boat rammed it and sank it again! It was then re-re-floated and brought into the dry dock for the restoration to begin.

We were delighted to see Jamie, the blacksmith who taught R last week, hard at work inside "Hardy". Clearly a man of many talents!

R had to stand on tip-toe to talk to Jamie over the gunwale!

The yard has a small museum that contains a model railway; inevitably of great interest to R, always on the lookout for fresh ideas.

Matt Armitage, who has owned Tooley's for the last 16 years, has done a mass of research into the history of the Yard and this week his book about the Yard, "Forging Ahead", was published.  So we picked up the copies that we had pre-ordered a year ago!
Sadly, when Banbury council developed the Castle Quay shopping centre, they virtually ignored the canal. Further development is planned and it is to be hoped that their attitude to the canal might change and they might show a bit more appreciation for the history in their midst (not holding our breath though, given the council's track record thus far).
As the rain continued, we ended up inside the adjacent Castle Quay shopping centre so that R could have a coffee in Costa and M could visit M&S for a few bits.
Then back to MM at Aston.