Hello! 

I was just wondering if anyone is / anyone knows people who are uni students who live on Narrowboats. Is it possible? I'd love to hear from anyone with experience about this. 

 

Thanks! 

Doubt Uni students look at this forum, you need to get down with da kids and do fakebook/twatter etc...

3 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Doubt Uni students look at this forum, you need to get down with da kids and do fakebook/twatter etc...

Showing your age Rob, it's all Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok & Discord nowadays  

 

Took my daughter to look round Leeds Beckett last Friday, had forgotten how awful driving in Leeds is  

Edited July 3, 20233 yr by Hudds Lad

Its years since any of our kids went to uni but we did know some of our friends kids that lived on boats back in the day. I reckon there will be several out there. Best to walk a busy towpath and suss out. Or as others have said Farcebook, Twatter, Instant crap etc etc would be a good place to research.

15 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

Showing your age Rob, it's all Instagram/Snapchat/TikTok & Discord nowadays  

 

Facebook is for the oldies now. Forums are for the positively geriatric.

I did work on a boat, called Topsham, many years ago. It was being refurbished for the owner's uni-bound kids. Intended for use in Oxford. As with all boating, and tied to one place, the mooring aspects become an issue. 

 

 

1 minute ago, Higgs said:

I did work on a boat, called Topsham, many years ago. It was being refurbished for the owner's uni-bound kids. Intended for use in Oxford. As with all boating, and tied to one place, the mooring aspects become an issue. 

 

 

Should be able to finish a Degree & a Masters before CRT take action, especially on the K&A  

2 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Took my daughter to look round Leeds Beckett last Friday, had forgotten how awful driving in Leeds is  

Leeds? Doesn't your offspring want to put more distance between her university life and the parental home? 

If she's in Leeds you'll be getting her washing every week!

2 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Leeds? Doesn't your offspring want to put more distance between her university life and the parental home? 

If she's in Leeds you'll be getting her washing every week!

Her choice, to be honest she doesn't really like leaving the house  Absolute opposite of me at that age.

I get her washing every week anyway, no difference for me  

2 hours ago, ChrisRichmond94 said:

Hello! 

I was just wondering if anyone is / anyone knows people who are uni students who live on Narrowboats. Is it possible? I'd love to hear from anyone with experience about this. 

 

Thanks! 

 

I lived in a narrow boat for a few years while I was studying for my first degree as a mature student about 25 years ago and then later on my widebeam while I was doing my PhD.

 

It's perfectly possible if you have the money to buy a boat, licence, etc, and have the inclination to do the maintenance & upkeep.

 

In terms of the experience it's more or less the same as living on a narrow boat as a non-student.

Edited July 3, 20233 yr by blackrose

When I was at Art School in Falmouth it wasn’t unheard of for someone to have spent their grant on a boat to live on. 

 

I think they were pretty rough boats mind. It was always going to be short term for them and it added to their kudos.  At that age you can rough it if you know your mates will let you shower/ bath at there’s and you find a partner with digs. 

 

yep, we used to get a termly grant from our local authority, 
no tuition fees,

and we signed on in the summer and Easter breaks to get a dole cheque and housing benefit (rent) paid. 
We had it easy enough. 

 

 

 

Boring update alert........one of my grand daughters foned us for a chat today from her uni and I mentioned this thread. She has a friend in her group that does indeed live on a narrowboat with 3 friends. Her dad bought it rather than chuck money away on rent, the four kids split the costs and its much cheaper all round and dad still owns the boat which of course is a better bet than rent. Oh she didnt know where the boat is kept but its Sheffield uni so there will be choices and they all drive.

1 hour ago, Goliath said:

When I was at Art School in Falmouth it wasn’t unheard of for someone to have spent their grant on a boat to live on. 

 

I think they were pretty rough boats mind. It was always going to be short term for them and it added to their kudos.  At that age you can rough it if you know your mates will let you shower/ bath at there’s and you find a partner with digs. 

 

yep, we used to get a termly grant from our local authority, 
no tuition fees,

and we signed on in the summer and Easter breaks to get a dole cheque and housing benefit (rent) paid. 
We had it easy enough.

Yes.

 

And I'm so old I went to a university.

Birmingham University has its own moorings on the canal, and at one time there were a few boats moored there that looked as if they were lived on by students. But the last time I passed I think there was only their experimental electric boat there (and that looked very neglected).

2 hours ago, Goliath said:

 

yep, we used to get a termly grant from our local authority, 
no tuition fees,

and we signed on in the summer and Easter breaks to get a dole cheque and housing benefit (rent) paid. 
We had it easy enough. 

 

 

 

I had that too. Got one daughter paying off a student loan and another going to uni later this year.

Young people now have my sympathy, I think our generation had the best of it.

 

One of my sister's PhD students has a widebeam, apparently. 

 

If she had a narrowboat, she could moor in the middle of campus and blame water shortages for not making any progress for 6 years...

Edited July 3, 20233 yr by enigmatic

I lived aboard from 2nd year onwards, bought my first boat at 18 (7 years ago). Worked very well actually, but I went into it specifically wanting to be a boater, not as a cheap housing option. Worked bloomin hard to buy the boat (a project) then gradually improved it 

 

23 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

Young people now have my sympathy, I think our generation had the best of it.

I dunno. 
If I listened to me dad, his generation had it best. 

Straight in to an apprenticeship where his dad worked.

 

 

 

 

 

49 minutes ago, Mad Harold said:

I had that too. Got one daughter paying off a student loan and another going to uni later this year.

Young people now have my sympathy, I think our generation had the best of it.

 

Yes in one way, but salaries were  not that great, most jobs were £1000 pa and we lived month to month unless living at home. If you wanted a car you had to save up for it, no one had credit. An overdraft had to be negotiated with the assistant bank manager, by interview.

 

 

 

Quote

 

 

Many years ago there was a student living on a boat at Lyons Boatyard on the North Stratford

I lived aboard through both my Master's degrees.

 

Mature student though.

 

 

14 hours ago, LadyG said:

  An overdraft had to be negotiated with the assistant bank manager, by interview.

 

 

 

 

At least you could talk to one, went into my bank to increase mine and they said go on line

 

When studying Design/Art in Cheltenham back at the start of the 90's i had occasion to come home and visit the family GP (remember those?), he was intrigued as to why I hadn't done what he'd done with his student grant, which was pool it with a couple of friends and buy a house to live in whilst they were studying. Once they left Uni they sold the house and with the proceeds he'd bought his own house and his first MG!

Told him a full grant, at that time, was £2500 for the year and he couldn't understand how we got by.

 

20 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

I lived in a narrow boat for a few years while I was studying for my first degree as a mature student about 25 years ago and then later on my widebeam while I was doing my PhD.

It's perfectly possible if you have the money to buy a boat, licence, etc, and have the inclination to do the maintenance & upkeep.

In terms of the experience it's more or less the same as living on a narrow boat as a non-student.

 

Me and Di both went to University as mature students about 1969> - 3 year sandwich courses. We lived on Progress at the time and had two young children. Grants are obviously very different now and living costs probably take a greater % of income, but as Blackrose says the actual practicalities of boat life is no different to that of non-student boat dwellers. It basically comes down to whether or not the person has the capability required to live on a boat, period. Certainly if they are likely to find boat life difficult to cope with then the added stress of studying for a degree won't help a lot.

 

Tam

5 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

At least you could talk to one, went into my bank to increase mine and they said go on line

 

In the old days you would get dressed up to see your bank manager. Nowadays people walk into any bank dressed in whatever