The Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust took the opportunity of the Norbury Festival to install an information panel right next to the junction where the Newport Canal used to join the Shropshire Union Canal. The panel highlights the start of the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals and features some of the attractions that restoration of the canals will open up
Negotiations with the CRT resulted, just in time, in permission to install the panel on their land adjacent to the entrance bridge. SNCT volunteers managed to get it in place on the Thursday before the Festival. The panel was formally unveiled by Councillor Leon Murray, Mayor of Telford and a strong supporter of the Trust, on the opening day of the Festival in front of a large crowd.
This years Norbury Canal Festival on 2-5 May went extremely well. The weather was kind again, always a benefit in early May and not one that can relied on. Nearly 30 boats, many of them traders, attended the boat rally and there were over 40 stalls scattered along the towpath and in the adjacent field at the rear of the Junction Inn. The quality of the stalls and of the boat traders is noticeably improving every year. The pub almost ran out of beer again and everyone had a good time.
The number of visitors was remarkable again for a small festival. Between 8500 to 9000 people attending the event. The ATC squadrons did an excellent job organising the car parking and the mini-bus to carry visitors from the car park to the event. They counted all the cars as they arrived at the car park and then multiplied this by the average number of people in each vehicle to give us the total attendance.
