An amateur film produced by Ken Ellwood of bicentenary celebrations for the Leeds-Liverpool Canal taking place at the Canal Basin in Skipton in April 1973. Crowds watch as various leisure boats and canal barges arrive; one barge being pulled by a horse. On display nearby the Burrell General Purpose traction engine owned by the filmmaker. In the second part of the film sacks of coal are transported from the Canal Basin on a Marshall General Purpose Engine 54492 owned by John Ostle to Embsay...

An amateur film produced by Ken Ellwood of bicentenary celebrations for the Leeds-Liverpool Canal taking place at the Canal Basin in Skipton in April 1973. Crowds watch as various leisure boats and canal barges arrive; one barge being pulled by a horse. On display nearby the Burrell General Purpose traction engine owned by the filmmaker. In the second part of the film sacks of coal are transported from the Canal Basin on a Marshall General Purpose Engine 54492 owned by John Ostle to Embsay railway station where it is loaded onto a steam train owned by John Ostle’s to Embsay railway station where it is loaded onto a steam train. A crowd gathers around Canal Basin in Skipton, on the water several leisure boats moored up. In a nearby car park a horse-drawn wagon sits atop a lorry, nearby the Burrell General Purpose traction engine 3918 'Deboroah’ in steaming up. On the water one of the leisure boats slowly manoeuvrers towards a building bellowing to ‘Pennine Cruisers’ watched by a crowd standing along the canal towpaths. A small crowd gather around the traction engine watching its pistons moving back and forth. Back on the water a woman sits on the edge of the boat ‘First of May’ as it is driven around the bason, back at the traction engine a small boy climbs onto the footplate. Two men in wetsuits snorkel in the waters of the canal changes to the ‘First of May’ being driven at speed around a buoy in the water with balloons attached. A man on the boat tries to pop a balloon each time it passes, crowds watch from the towpath. A barge comes slowly along the canal, behind it two others plus a motorboat. Another barge comes into the bason being pulled by a horse which navigates the crowds along the towpath. A large poster onboard the barge reads ‘Laycock Solid Fuel'. A second decorative barge passes, writing along the side reading ‘Alf Bailey Clayworth Notts’. A woman in mayoral chains stands at the bow of the motorboat ‘Fairy Queen’ as it pulls up alongside a mooring. The traction engines stand alone on the road changes to a boy and girl dressed in 19th century costumes holding the reins of the horse that was seen earlier pulling the barge. More barges arrive and are moored up around the basin, in the water a scuba diver. The young girl seen previously in an historic costume leads the horse away from the basin, two boys also in costumes walk in front with one carrying a colourful bucket. The girl speaks with a woman who now has the horse reins. Beside the basin three men load sacks of coal onto a wagon attached to a Marshall General Purpose Engine 54492. The engine is driven away by two men through Skipton with the three men who loaded the sacks now sitting in the wagon on the sacks of coal. As they travel slowly along a country road a tailback of other vehicles behind them, an articulated lorry overtakes. The traction engine continues to drive slowly along a country road changes to the footplate of a steam train from which the traction engine can be seen being driven along a parallel road past the Bow Bridge Garage. The train pulls into Embsay railway station coming to a stop. The Marshall engine arrives at the station and the coal sacks unloaded from the wagon into the tender of the train.