BANBURY’S quayside was flooded with boat buffs for the town’s ninth annual Canal Day.

Punters were invited to dress in 1930s get-up for this year’s gangsters and molls theme.

Barges of all kinds crammed the quayside for the floatilla, and canoe clubs ferried people up and down river all day.

One of those paddling people was Andy Dancer, chairman of the Cherwell canoe club. He brought his children Eddie and Lian along for a ride in a Canadian canoe.

He said: “There has been a fantastic turnout and there are all sorts of entertainment. It is a celebration of the canal.”

Audrey and Ray Kilsby, from Duddington near Stamford, auctioned off a needlepoint copy of a LS Lowry to raise money for an orphanage in Tanzania.

Mrs Kilsby said: “It is wonderful – the local authority have pulled out all the stops.”

As well as aquatic adventures, the fair also brought together blacksmiths, the finest local ale producers and six Morris troops.

Kieron Mallon, leader of the Banbury Town Council which organises the event, said: “It started as a shindig to celebrate the narrowboat yard – one of the few surviving in the country – and it just grew and grew.”