THE hard work put in by all the people concerned in staging the Floating Market in Birmingham certainly paid off, with a very successful event indeed.
Held over three days of the weekend, helped with kind weather, the people of Birmingham really embraced the concept of using the canal as a market, with an estimated 2,000 people visiting the floating traders, John Sloan tells us.
Traders
The event was organised by The West Midlands Waterways Partnership, Canal & River Trust, Birmingham City Council, Brindley Place and The Roving Traders Association, and of course most important of all the 20 traders that made up the market, with John remarking:
"All the traders reported good sales and seem to have thoroughly enjoyed the weekend not only for trade but also for the social side. Canal traders like most boaters only pass each other fleetingly on the canals, so to have 20 traders in one place for a long weekend was well worth while as the public then had such a wide choice of goods to examine and food to taste, with of course the traders swapping stories of places they had traded during the year."
Canal & River Trust Chairman Tony Hales officially opened the market on Saturday morning and then spent two hours going round meeting all the traders and even purchased a number of items. He can be seen in the picture talking to trader Sue Cotton of the Herb Boat.
Richard Parry
Then on Saturday afternoon there was a surprise visit from Canal & River Trust Chief Executive, Richard Parry, who took the time to listen and learn about the life of these unique traders who spend most of the year on the waterways. Richard Parry accepted an invitation to crew one of the boats next year on the BCN Challenge so he will certainly get to know the Birmingham Canal system!
Birmingham City Council were so pleased with the event that they have asked for at least two more floating markets next year and are very keen to see the concept of of it becoming a regular event in Birmingham.
Boaters working together
John Sloan who had the original idea for a Floating Market explained:
"It is a great example of how boaters working together can make things happen. I would like to say a big thank you to Alison Tuck from Roving Canal Traders Association who did all the hard work to ensure plenty of traders attended the event."
Met senior staff
On the Friday evening nearly 70 boaters attended a social evening to meet Canal & River Trust senior staff in an informal setting. Richard Parry, Simon Salem, Vince Moran and Sally Ash all attended, and boaters were able to discuss matters on a one to one basis with senior staff, with John remarking that they seemed to survive!
Another success on the day was the launch of the Association of Continuous Cruisers, on which we shall report.
(Our thanks to Gillie Rhodes for the Floating Market photographs and Jan Warsop for the Tony Hales photograph.)