The waterways of the UK have always held a fascination, from my distant youth on the Norfolk Broads to the more energetic rivers of Scotland *salmon fishing.

Having the desire to spend a few years discovering England’s canal and river system, its history both archaeological and natural, we thought we would move onto a narrowboat.

Of course, our timing couldn’t be better, we wanted to start just as that Covid arrived on our shores! We lost some time with that but the price of boats got silly, vey rapidly and good boats were being snapped up as soon as they came to market. With this in mind we thought we would have one built and so, we started to contact various companies.

Some were ruled out after the first email and/or phone call and by a process of elimination we eventually found our fabricator, ABC Boats in Boston. If you are swayed by glossy catalogues then you will be disappointed, ABC Boats show you the fabrication floor and their products and any company that builds its own CNC plasma cutter is my type of engineering outfit.

For the fit-out we took the recommendation from ABC Boats and the shell went to A&M Narrowboats Ltd. The fit-out started OK but, to cut a long story short, A&M went into receivership and things got a tad stressful for a few weeks. A&M did a good job on the boat (other boat builders have said that) but we had a half finished boat to deal with, we had to find a competent boat builder to complete her!

A few days later we did, Graham Ford of Cherilton Narrowboats. We have known Graham a number of weeks now (at the time of writing) and he most certainly a hidden gem in the world of narrowboats, his advise and skills are excellent but don’t take my word for it, check out his Facebook page. 

Graham operates out of Trent Lock, a very popular location with river and canal walks, two pubs (draught beer and food) and a tearoom that does nice cakes, coffee and over sixty variety of tea!

If you a looking to a bespoke boat, an excellent paint job or some refurbishment give Graham a call on 07967 635 665. 

Both companies have tried their hardest to accommodate our requirements but, obviously, a lot more detail is required in the fit-out. Martin and Sharon are in touch on a regular basis and advise on whether any particular feature will work based on their experience. At the time of writing their website isn’t running over ‘https’ so you will get warnings from your browser that the world is about to end but you only really need worry about such things when posting financial and other such sensitive date. However, if that is still of concern they can be reached at info@amnarrowboats.co.uk.