On Easter Monday 2000, a rather special piece of RNLI history was recreated with grateful thanks to the organisers of the Streets Ahead launch parade in Manchester. The RNLI in the north west was successful in raising over £5,000 in celebration of the fact that Manchester was the first city ever to hold a charity street collection - the Lifeboat Saturday...With the help and support of Cheshire Building Society and Barclaycard, the beautifully restored pulling and sailing lifeboat. The Queen Victoria, was transported to the north west and hauled through the streets of Manchester. Forty live volunteers from Barclaycard's regional centre raised sponsorship in a recreation of the Lifeboat Saturday 1891 as the starting point for a year of awareness raising and fundraising in the city.

The story of the tirsi ever Lifeboat Saturday is known to most RNLI supporters and enthusiasts. On ihe night of December 1K86 the German barque. Mexico, ran aground in the Ribble estuary off the north west coast. Southport. Lyiham and St. Anne's lifeboats were launched to aid the crew of the Mexico. The Southport and Si. Anne's lifeboats capsized, with 27 crew losing their lives - the worst lifeboat disaster in the history of the lifeboat service.

Charles Macara (left) was a prominent Manchester businessman of the time and had a house in Lytham to escape from the hustle and bustle of Victorian Manchester. With a passion for the sea. Macara was chairman of the RNLi St. Anne's branch and, following the lifeboat disaster, sought to involve the city of Manchester in raising funds for the relief efforts and was instrumental in organising Lifeboat Saturday on 17 October 1891. The ensuing parade, in which a lifeboat was pulled through the city street form Manchester's impressive Town Hall in Albert Square, raised a total of £5,500 - with an estimated 2 million people contributing to the fund.

Bringing The Queen Victoria to the modern city of Manchester was no mean feat and posed such difficulties as navigating the one-way systems and finding a secure place to moor her overnight! Thankfully, Manchester's premier exhibition venue. Ginex, came to the rescue and the old lifeboat made a stunning sight against the Manchester skyline. Each year the Streets Ahead launch parade is an impressive start to a month long arts festival.

With 50 entries this year, and an expected audience of thousands, the RNLI had to be shipshape early in theday, for its parade entry was one of the biggest - with two boats and over 60 people to assemble on a chilly and. you guessed it, rainy Manchester morning! The Barclaycard team donned RNLI tee-shirts with pride and made ready at the ropes, while regional office staff and volunteers from a number of north west branches looked a dapper bunch in their Victorian costumes. Volunteer Tom Ridyard took his place as coxswain, complete with cork life-jacket, sou'wester, theatrical beard and megaphone and kept the pulling team in line, as well as entertaining the crowds with his nautical banter. More volunteers in modern kit followed The Queen Victoria alongside a D class lifeboat. A burst of afternoon sunshine put smiles on all faces and dispelled the myth that it always rains in Manchester.

With cheers from the crowd as the boat was hauled past the rebuilt city centre following the bomb of 1996.

the historic buildings of the city, such as the Royal Exchange, made a poignant backdrop for The Queen Victoria in reflecting the original prints of that lirst ever Lifeboat Saturday (above). Met in Albert Square by the 10 Lord Mayors of Greater Manchester, the recreation was complete and finished in the exact spot that Macara led his parade from all those years ago.

The recreation, in conjunction with the RNLI Manchester flag weekend and collections at two branches of Cheshire Building Society, was successful in matching Macara's total and raised a fabulous £5.500 with all costs covered by Barclaycard and Cheshire Building Society..