Foulridge

Thanks 'Chuggy' ! You were great to deal with personally and as a company, and given the circumstances regarding the takeover etc, couldn't have done more for us to help us enjoy our holiday. We were also lucky to have picked such a good week weatherwise. The offer is appreciated and we wish you all the best with Middlewich Boats - hopefully we will be hiring from you again.

We've just got back from a week with Middlewich Boats, doing the four counties ring, and on the whole it was a good experience. We hired their 60 foot cruiser 'Damson' which whilst undeniably old and tired by modern hire boat standards was clean, comfortable and performed ok with just one or two niggling problems which were a nuisance but nothing more than that. Every contact we had with people in the company, from the owner down, was excellent and gave the impression that they they wanted people to enjoy their holiday. They'd replaced the old diesel cooker with a new propane one, provided new bedding and made sure everything was clean and working ok. I was aware of the change in ownership to Middlewich boats and that the new owners inherited an old and very run down fleet of hire boats. With the time available to them, they seem to have done their best to bring their boats up to a reasonable standard for this season, whilst preparing to gradually replace most the boats with new ones (I think they are hoping to keep some of their popular trad / semi-trad boats). As a family we've been hiring narrowboats on and off for around thirty five years and it's evident that most modern hirers now have high expectations of hire-boats - quite rightly given the cost of hiring nowadays. However understandable it might be that the new owners of Middlewich wouldn't want to throw loads of money onto old boats, I hope that their reputation doesn't suffer from having to hire out the old boats whilst they gradually renew their fleet. If we decide to do the Cheshire ring sometime in the future, we would certainly consider Middlewich boats again, though in fairness only with a more modern boat. We booked with Middlewich as we wanted to support a small independent hirer and so I wish the new owners of Middlewich boats all the best in their new venture. They without doubt have a lot of work to do but they do seem to be taking things forward.