Bicentenary Flotilla
Sat 18 Jul 2026, 12.30pm - 5pm
Goole Docks and Marina (assembling at the Dog and Duck, Dutch Riverside)
Watch from public walkways and viewing areas only, keep well back from unfenced quaysides and dock edges, and supervise children closely near the water.
On Saturday 18 July 2026 a flotilla of vessels — cruisers, Dutch barges, narrowboats, historic keels, commercial barges, tugs, launches and fast ribs, led by an Associated British Ports survey vessel — takes to the water to recreate the spectacle that founded the town. In July 1826 the Aire and Calder Navigation Company marked the opening of the canal from Knottingley and the new docks at Goole with a grand procession of around 50 decorated vessels, greeted by cannon fire, bands and cheering crowds. Two hundred years on, the Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society is organising the bicentenary answer to that day.
The flotilla assembles from 12.30pm in the Dog and Duck area of the canal near Goole Marina, where the public can wave the boats off, departs at 2pm to pass through South Dock bridge and around the docks, and returns by about 4pm. Good vantage points include the banks near Goole Marina and Spicers Auctioneers (accessed via Dutch Riverside), the public walkways between Lowther Bridge and Barge Dock, the Bridge Street road bridges at West Dock and South Dock, and the Goole Model Boat Club site on Dutch Riverside. A photography competition for under-25s runs alongside the event — phone photos and video welcome. Free to watch.