Crowds gather for riverside celebration in Spalding

Organisers of a riverside celebration say the ‘joyful’ event is only the start of an ambitious plan to make the town a more ‘vibrant’ and ‘inspiring’ place to live.

Members of the public gathered in Spalding to take part in a live music walk at the weekend to mark the end of a £250,000 project which aims to celebrate the area's heritage and assets such as the River Welland.

The event included talks and performances at the Willow Eel Trap, a musical walk, Morris dancing and a performance by Spalding Community Choir before refreshments were served at Ayscoughfee Hall.

A banner, which features a map of the town along with wildlife, has also been created for the project by different groups in the town as a result of workshops held last year.

Nick Jones, director for the group, said: “Thank you to all those that made this a lovely celebration event, full of music, delicious food, beautiful banners and new public artwork.

“These new river walkway markers are designed to be subtle additions to the walking experience created by the growing willow artworks. What you see, beautiful as they are, are just the start. They have been planted, they will grow, and we will revisit each year to weave new growth into the structures, so they evolve and get stronger.

“The project and joyful celebration event is a testament to what collaboration can achieve when we connect people, stories, and places to make Spalding a more vibrant and inspiring place to live and visit.

“The project is called Spalding Reconnected, but of course it is more complex than achieving that in one programme. This is the start of that ambition, part of regenerating the town and making it a more interesting place to live and visit and helping to find a way of contributing to the local economy.”

South Holland District Council, Heritage Lincolnshire, Transported, East Mercia Rivers Trust and Landmark worked together on the project.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund in 2022 donated £250,000 to Spalding Reconnected who have since used it to celebrate the town’s history and heritage with arts and nature schemes.

Prior to the celebration held at the weekend, willow sculptures and ‘floating eco-systems’ had been added to the banks of the River Welland as part of the project.

What do you think the new additions to the riverside? Let us know in the comments below…