Peppa pig narrowboat

Denholme's quiet canalside was the scene of a baffling and frankly hilarious romantic encounter this weekend, which looked for all the world like a scene from a Peppa Pig episode after a few too many glasses of sherry. It all started, local rumour has it, with a lonely-hearts note pinned to a canalside lamp post. The skipper of 'The Muddy Puddle'—a magnificent floating shrine to Peppa Pig—was apparently looking for a suitor. The note cheekily requested "a chap who isn't afraid of muddy puddles and knows his way around a barbecue," adding that "a bit of a Daddy Pig type wouldn't go amiss."

Well, never let it be said that the gentlemen of Yorkshire don't know how to answer a call. One local hero, taking the request at its most wonderfully literal, arrived on the towpath this Saturday morning, resplendent in a full Daddy Pig costume, ready to win the heart of the mystery boater. What followed was a tense stand-off across the water—a silent conversation between a man in a pig suit and a boat with a giant Peppa on the front. Was he invited aboard for a slice of chocolate cake? Did he impress with his expert knowledge of dinosaurs? Or was he simply told to trot on?

We may never know the outcome. But it’s a heartwarming, if slightly potty, tale of romance on the waterways. It just goes to show, in the search for love, sometimes you have to be willing to make a complete pig of yourself.