Skipton Waterway Festival Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Yorkshire, England Nigel Borrington
Held every May Bank Holiday in Yorkshire, the Skipton Waterway Festival is a 3 day canal boat event which runs every year on the 1st May day Bank holiday weekend. It is an event which is a non-profit making Festival, which solely relies on donations and sponsorship from the local community. they are also organized by volunteers from Pennine Cruisers and the local community, without these people the event would not run as smoothly as it does each year.
The 1st Skipton Waterway Festival was held in 2001 and they have gone on to grow more and more each year. The festival was originally organized by CRT (British Waterways then) and Pennine Cruisers for around 5 years, however Pennine Cruisers then took on the event, as they saw how much the local boaters and town enjoyed it. As Pennine Cruisers look forward to this event each year, it is part of their year now, as they have organized it for a long time, they say that they would be a little lost without it.
As an event they attract around 8, 000 – 10,000 visitors each year over the full 3 days. It is noticed when people/families visit the festival each and every year. They put on various entertainment, stalls from craft to charity stalls, children’s activities and an array of food/concession stalls. There is something for almost everyone.
This years Festival was great to visit with many Craft stalls and lots of Local history with the new presentation of an internet based database of all the families who worked and still work on the Leeds and Liverpool canal from the first times it was open for use.
Canal boats and the Boat man Photography : Nigel Borrington
Way back in the 1990’s the Levellers an English rock band, founded in 1988 and based in Brighton, England released this song “The boats man” from their album “Levelling the Land”.
Some songs stay with you all your life and for me this is definitely one that has 🙂
It screams out to “Personal Freedoms” , being free to live your life that way you want !! “Free as the rivers breeze”
The fact it centers on the lives of boat people is perfect, for some reason the people who’s lives where lived on the canals and river banks always felt more free, free to move and travel making a living from transporting goods (Coal, timber and foods ), from boat repairs and from music played in the many pub’s along the river banks.
The levellers
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a boatman
On the canals and the rivers free
No hasty words are spoken
My only law is the river breeze
That takes me to the open seas
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a boatman
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a rover
And if the road was not for me
Then I MIGHT choose another
Cross mountains and the valleys deep
Where I WILL take these weary feet
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a rover
.
But these things they’re so hard for me
I cannot choose my own destiny
And all the things that I want to see
Are so unclean
Well I wish I could choose the life I please
But I am not a free man
Others rule my destiny
But my will’s never broken
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I’d be
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman.
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I’d be
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman.
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman.
Nigel Borrington 
If I could choose the life I please, Then I would be a boatman !
Canal boats and the Boat man
Photography : Nigel Borrington
Way back in the 1990’s the Levellers an English rock band, founded in 1988 and based in Brighton, England released this song “The boats man” from their album “Levelling the Land”.
Some songs stay with you all your life and for me this is definitely one that has 🙂
It screams out to “Personal Freedoms” , being free to live your life that way you want !! “Free as the rivers breeze”
The fact it centers on the lives of boat people is perfect, for some reason the people who’s lives where lived on the canals and river banks always felt more free, free to move and travel making a living from transporting goods (Coal, timber and foods ), from boat repairs and from music played in the many pub’s along the river banks.
The levellers
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a boatman
On the canals and the rivers free
No hasty words are spoken
My only law is the river breeze
That takes me to the open seas
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a boatman
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a rover
And if the road was not for me
Then I MIGHT choose another
Cross mountains and the valleys deep
Where I WILL take these weary feet
If I could choose the life I please
Then I would be a rover
But these things they’re so hard for me
I cannot choose my own destiny
And all the things that I want to see
Are so unclean
Well I wish I could choose the life I please
But I am not a free man
Others rule my destiny
But my will’s never broken
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I’d be
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman.
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I’d be
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman.
And when I live the life I please
Then I will be a freeman.
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February 19, 2015 | Categories: Comment, Gallery, Images for music, Story telling gallery, Travel Locations | Tags: 1990's, Boats people, canal boats, Canal life, Canal photography, English rock bands, images for music, Levellers, Nigel Borrington, Personal Freedoms, river images, river life | 5 Comments