As part of the Festival of Imagination paddlers will be clambering into coracles on the River Severn in Ironbridge to compete in the annual regatta this bank holiday Monday.
The Ironbridge Coracle Regatta takes place on bank holiday Monday, August 26, between 12pm and 4pm and will see racing, a duck race, stalls, fun, refreshments and entertainment.
There will be an opportunity for anyone who has not been in a coracle before to go along and have a go in the notoriously difficult to paddle round vessels.
The free day is the first event on the Festival of Imagination which officially runs for two weeks over September 14 to 29.
Throughout the two weeks at the Green Woods Centre, the Ironbridge Coracle Trust is hoping to develop links within the community and encourage people to volunteer at a brand new coracle centre which is currently being built.
This will be a traditional museum exhibition which will show all of the original content from the old coracle shed and demonstrate the history of coracle making and use in Ironbridge.
Graham Peet, from the Ironbridge Coracle Trust, said: “We want to do this without bringing in professional exhibition designers from outside the area, we want to do it all with local people and the Festival of Imagination is a very important part of encouraging people to become part of this project.”
At the Green Woods Centre there will be an exhibition telling the story of coracle’s in Ironbridge and displaying some of the original items that were found in the original old coracle shed which is no longer open to the public and has lain empty for 15 years.
But thanks to money awarded during the Telford 50 by Telford & Wrekin Council, the old shed has been scanned and visitors to the Green Wood Centre will be able to pull on some virtual reality headsets and see a virtual version of the shed come to life.
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