Welcome to the Home page of the Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival.
Who asked "What's Moonraking?" Its a good question, but it is not hard to answer.
It all started around 1802 when the Slaithwaite Canal was built. As usual, when there are ships there are smugglers, and canal barges are ships of a sort aren't they. Some of the bargees used to smuggle all sorts of things up the canal. Mostly rum and whisky and other things that had duty on them, and times were hard on the local estate in 1802, so they employed customs men to try and catch the smugglers. Despite this, the chances of getting caught if you were a smart cookie were not very high, and the profits could be so good that many villagers took the risk to make a few bob.
The Moonraking story begins on a dark, windy and cloudy evening late in 1802. A distant uncle of the writer, named Ken Boot, helped by some of his mates, was collecting the rum that had been secretly placed in the reed bed in the canal by a bargee.
They has just started to rake it out, when a shaft of moonlight pierced the clouds and illuminated the scene. Unknown to Ken, some customs men were secretly keeping watch, having been tipped off by a jealous villager. When the moonlight lit up the scene, one of the customs men shouted "What are you lot doing?" Uncle Fred was quite a quick thinker and as he noticed the Moon reflected on the water, he replied "Are you blind? Can't you see that the Moon has fallen into the water. and we're trying to rake her out before she drowns!" Well, the customs men looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Moon fallen in the water! A right lot of Moonrakers you are!" said one, and they returned to the customs house in Marsden, to feed their Cuckoos. (That's another story)
Uncle Ken and his mates quickly gathered up their smuggled goods and returned home.
(He later enjoyed a long and happy retirement in Devizes, Wiltshire. That's yet another story.)
So at half term holiday in February for many many years, the story of Uncle Ken has been celebrated by the villagers of Slaithwaite, with lanterns, storytelling, bands, music and dancing. That's Moonraking!
Disclaimer:
All attempts to verify the truth or otherwise of this tale have been unsuccessful.
It is still a great yarn, and we welcome any comments on it.
