Residents from all corners of Rickmansworth came together on May 18 and 19 to enjoy a host of community-orientated events.
A total of 67 boats congregated for the inaugural Batchworth Boat Rally, a weekend of live folk music, roving traders, heritage tours and Morris dancing. The Batchworth Sea Scouts, meanwhile, hosted a series of bands, a barbecue and a licenced bar as part of a Saturday shindig. St Mary’s Church put on their very first Open Weekend event replete with a teddy-bear parachute and plant sale, whilst Batchworth Community Council timed their monthly Sunday Market to also take place on the same weekend.
Rickynews visited these events to speak with attendees. Many stressed the importance of staging new community get-togethers to replace the much-missed Rickmansworth Canal Festival.
At the core of the special weekend’s line-up was the first-ever Batchworth Boat Rally. As an alternative to the Rickmansworth Canal Festival, chairman Christine Thompson is keen to keep Ricky’s newest event a daytime affair focused on the boating community and local public.
Christine said: “We only started putting together the Boat Rally on February 1, after the Rickmansworth Canal Festival was cancelled. We had no organisation, no bank account – everything had to be begun from scratch. It was quite a challenge pulling everything together.”
Regardless, no visitor to the rally would have known that everything was organised so last minute. With the support of so many local charities, Christine and her committee successfully pulled off an event that drew in boaters from around the whole country.
“We didn’t even have time to put a programme together,” laughed Christine. “But we do hope to use this year’s event as a template for the future.”
Photo caption: A closing parade at the end of the Batchworth Boat Rally
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