VISITORS to an annual boat and car festival in Droitwich this Bank Holiday weekend will get to sample a specially-brewed ale celebrating the history of the Worcester to Birmingham canal.

Birds Brewery in Bromsgrove has brewed a special beer named 58 Special Ale after the 58 locks on the canal, which will be on offer at the three-day St Richard’s Boat and Canal Festival starting on Saturday, May 2.

A working holiday boat was loaded up with casks of the beer at Worcester marina last week, before being taken up the canal to Droitwich in time for this weekend’s ninth annual event, which celebrates the life of St Richard, who according to legend made the town’s brine wells flow again in the Middle Ages.

At the festival the team will meet up with a historic working boat which left from Birmingham, with the two between them having travelled the entire 29-mile length of the man-made waterway.

The festival will include medieval re-enactments, classic and vintage cars and a flotilla of boats and is one of a range of events being held this summer as part of the celebrations of the canal’s 200th anniversary, including the Worcester canal festival in June.

The three-day event will begin on Friday, June 12 and is the first of its kind to be held in the city.