Choir to take narrowboat on 'ultimate pub crawl'

Cor Bach, an a capella group from Staffordshire, won the inaugural Midlands Choir of the Year competition in 2022

An award-winning male choir is set to take a narrowboat on tour to raise money for a boat that provides days out for children with special educational needs.

The Cor Bach choir will be on The Beatrice on Sunday, as it travels on the Cauldon Canal in Staffordshire.

The 11-strong a capella group will visit four pubs along the way, with money raised going towards upkeep and maintenance of the boat.

“What we hope is we give folk along that part of the canal a brilliant Sunday,” said member Rowan Pritchard Jones.

“The Beatrice is the boat at the heart of a charity that will take children out with all sorts of different special needs... onto those tranquil, beautiful waters, making their way up through the canals.

“[They are] children who otherwise would not get an opportunity like that, children for whom the world is a noisy, chaotic and a difficult place to navigate."

He said the tour felt like “the ultimate Sunday pub crawl,” and that he was looking forward to people joining them in the pubs and enjoying their songs.

“Folks are welcome to join the boat, walk the tow path, and be part of what’s going to be a brilliant afternoon out,” Mr Pritchard Jones added.

The choir itself was initially formed in a pub, he said, having come together from a bigger choir which was based out of the collieries in Silverdale.

“We realised, one evening, sitting together in the pub, looking around at a group of friends, that actually we had the mix – we had tenors, baritones and basses,” Mr Pritchard Jones said.

The choir's tour will start at The Black Lion, Consall Forge at 10:20 BST on Sunday.

They will stop at The Boat, Cheddleton at about 11:00, then The Flintlock, Cheddleton at about 13:00 before finishing at The Hollybush, Denford at about 14:15.