Bonny the Boathorse, now aged 25, is celebrating her 25th year with Maria, the boat she took to London in 2000 from Manchester.
As part of the television programme ‘Britain Afloat’, Bonny and Maria were filmed crossing the Grade II listed Marple Aqueduct. Maria was on her home waters here, having been built at Marple.
The series will be about different types of boat and the programme about Narrow Boats will be shown on BBC1’s East Midlands region on Friday 29th September at 7.30 pm, available nationwide on BBC iPlayer the next day. (Programmes about other types of boat will be broadcast in other regions on 29th Sept.) The programme will then be broadcast nationwide as part of a series on BBC2 on Saturday 14th October at 8.00 pm.
Maria is owned by the Ashton Packet Boat Company and operated with horsepower by The Horseboating Society.
Crossing Marple Aqueduct in 2011. Photo: Warwick Burton