AN ARTIST has completed the South Craven and Keighley leg of a mammoth canal challenge.

Ben Cummins is pulling his “piano raft” along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

And he has paid tribute to people across the district for their “very warm welcome”.

Mr Cummins, 43, set off from Liverpool in 2012 and is aiming to get his boat to London by 2037.

He has written on the side of the vessel, “this is not a raft, it is an instrument that plays an unfolding song”, and says he plans to hold sound workshops on the water.

Mr Cummins, a former university lecturer originally from Kent, is currently moored near the Five Rise Locks in Bingley.

He said to comply with rules from the Canal and River Trust, he has to move the raft every two weeks, and pulls it by hand for at least a mile.

“I never go backwards, only forwards,” he said.

“I am a sound and visual artist, and this is my home, it’s my life.”