Duchess is set to name boat on Wilts and Berks Canal (From This Is Wiltshire)

Duchess is set to name boat on Wilts and Berks Canal

6:00pm Saturday 28th August 2010 in

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The Duchess of Cornwall will return to the Wilts and Berks Canal on Wednesday, September 8, to help celebrate its 200th anniversary.

Camilla, who is a patron of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust, will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opening of the canal by naming, and travelling on, the canal’s first purpose-built boat trip for visitors.

She will also be digging the first sod to create the new Melksham Link at Hilperton Marina.

In May, the duchess opened a bridge at the canal, just minutes from her country home in Reybridge, half a mile from Lacock.

It had been painstakingly restored by members of the trust.

Chairman John Laverick said: “The trustees are delighted that the Duchess of Cornwall has been able to help us mark the 200th anniversary of the opening of the canal. “It is a wonderful way for us to thank key supporters, as well as marking the milestone of commissioning our first trip boat which will give a real sense of what a fully-restored waterway will bring to local communities.”

The Duchess of Cornwall will also celebrate International Literacy Day on the same day by joining a ‘rhymetime’ session at Trowbridge Library in Mortimer Street.

The rhymetime is being organised in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.