COULD I take the opportunity to make an addition to the list of local venues that featured in the filming of Peaky Blinders (Ready for a return by TV programme, Keighley News, February 18).

Even avid ‘Peaky-niks’ can be excused for not recognising that the wharf scene at the start of Episode 4 of the first series was in fact filmed at Saltaire – despite the heavy and clever backdrop of Birmingham that was super-imposed. However, there is a clear pointer in the name of the barge that is seen gliding along the canal. This is Kennet.

Kennet is the heritage boat run by the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society and we were delighted to be asked to loan it for filming – well before Peaky Blinders achieved its subsequent iconic status. Normally Kennet can be seen at canal festivals and open days or hosting school visits at various locations along the anal. As a floating museum its cargo of heritage is open to view by the public – and it's free on entry!

Sadly, such activities were all cancelled last year and this year is looking no more promising. The Skipton Waterway Festival, the Keighley Transport Festival In Motion, the Bingley Canal Festival and the Leeds Waterfront Festival all fell victim to the pandemic in 2020. The prospect of two years' inactivity which now faces us poses major financial problems for the society. Kennet costs £5,000 a year to keep canal-worthy; most of this is collected by voluntary donation at canal festivals and open days.

We do hope to mount an ad hoc programme over the coming season, to the extent that post-Covid restrictions will allow, but this will be nothing on the scale of our usual level of activity. So, if you do come across Kennet, making its way along the canal or moored canalside, please lend us your support and grab your own piece of Peaky Blinders.

Colin Thunhurst, trustee, Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society

* Email your letters to alistair.shand@keighleynews.co.uk