Photographer's waterways passion revives festival

A photographer who has been chronicling canals around the UK for more than 40 years is leading the revival of a Black Country narrowboat festival.

Kev Maslin has already attracted 60 narrowboats to the Tipton Canal & Community Festival in September.

It's the first time the event has been staged since the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I'm not surprised by the support I've been receiving to get the festival back on, I'm absolutely astonished," said Mr Maslin.

Kev Maslin says he can't walk along a canal without taking his camera with him

Mr Maslin, who lives in Great Bridge, Sandwell, added: "The festival's coming back even bigger and better.

"Nobody was interested in reorganising the thing, so I stepped forward and within 48 hours of the the boat booking forms going live, we had 40 signed up.

"I thought 'come on, let's do it, how hard can it be'? And it's not that hard, just very time-consuming.

"A lot of my friends have historic boats, so I'm really flattered that they are coming for me, and we've probably got 30 of them."

Kev Maslin describes the West Midlands canal system as a "fantastic" resource

Mr Maslin said there was about 100 miles of navigable waterways in Birmingham, the Black Country and into Staffordshire, all within roughly 14 square miles.

"The narrowboating community is absolutely fabulous," he said. "I've got dozens of friends among them and they really appreciate what we are trying to do in Tipton, which is to promote canals and narrowboating."

The event will take place in Tipton on September 21 and 22.