Whitchurch Memories: Whitchurch Better Welcome re-enacts Cheshire cheese canalboat run
THE early 1900s, when Whitchurch was the epicentre of Cheshire farmhouse cheese production, have been re-created.
Whitchurch's Better Welcome committee and supporters re-enacted a 'cheese run' last month.
This is when cheese sold at the town's huge cheese fair was brought to the canalside and loaded on barges for distribution to towns and cities.
The re-enactment used Saturn - a restored Shropshire Union Canal Company fly boat originally used for carrying cheese.
This was pulled by boat horse Buddy, from Welshpool.
On board and on the towpath were students from Sir John Talbot's Technology College dressed in period costume as working canal children.
The cheese was unloaded from a pony and trap, and taken by boat from the Whitchurch arm of the Llangollen canal to Blackoe.
The event, which cost ã1,000 to stage, was grant-funded with support from Shropshire Sustainable Tourism and was filmed by Chris Smith and Martyn Chidlow from Videoactive.
The film is one of three Better Welcome initiatives promoting the tourism experience in Whitchurch.
Footage will be made into a short film about the local cheese industry- to be launched at the town's Blackberry Fair on October 3 - and a longer information film for use in the Heritage Centre by local tourism firms and for educational purposes. A full length DVD is also being made.
Jane Bebbington, co-ordinator of the project for Better Welcome, said: "It was a fantastic day. We had superb help from Sue Yates of the Saturn Trust, the Horse Boating Society, staff from Sir John Talbot's and Edith Hockenhull from Willington who brought her pony and trap.
"Jan and Paul Wynn let us park at Hadley Farm and John and Justin Beckett of Belton Cheese loaned two cheeses - and donated cheese to feed the children.
"Chas Bebbington made replica cheeses, and Jan Wynn covered them with cheese cloth. Barbara Rainford took photographs for us on the day.
"The students - all aged 13 - were superb actors and really entering into the spirit of the era.
"We hope a lot of people will come and see the short film version at Blackberry Fair."
The students involved - supervised by Design Technology Teacher Laura Skeith - were Koebe Matthews O'Hara, Jed Stokes-Jones, Grant Valentine, Jimmy Crone, Owen Burton, Amy Henesey, Emily Smith, and Daniel Thelwell.
The picture shows Jed Stokes-Jones leading boat horse Buddy along the canal in Whitchurch.
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