Middlewich Narrowboats - ceased trading?

[Richard T]

Very sad. We first hired from them 42years ago when we took Larch to Llangollen. We then hired on many occasions from them until we bought shares in a boat and then bought our own. We have many happy memories of boating on Larch, Pine, Beech, Oak, Willow and Holly. One of our daughters had her honeymoon on Holly. We rate Willow as the best boat that we have ever steered - it is a fabulous hull. It is for sale at present but the fit out appears to need a lot of money spending on it and we have a boat that we like and suits our needs.

I'm interested in the' wooden tops' and if one were to come on the market ..........

[Philip]

A fair proportion of their fleet within the last few years was made up of ex-Welsh Gateway/Empress/Simolda boats, did they have any of their 'traditional' craft still in the fleet this year?

I notice Andersen Boats were mentioned above, you have to give them credit; they build excellent boats and their fit-out has been fantastic for many years. Maybe not traditional garb but it's not surprising they are still thriving. And Chas Hardern are almost like a national treasure of the hire industry on the canals around here.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Philip

[AndrewIC]

1 hour ago, Philip said:

A fair proportion of their fleet within the last few years was made up of ex-Welsh Gateway/Empress/Simolda boats, did they have any of their 'traditional' craft still in the fleet this year?

I notice Andersen Boats were mentioned above, you have to give them credit; they build excellent boats and their fit-out has been fantastic for many years. Maybe not traditional garb but it's not surprising they are still thriving. And Chas Hardern are almost like a national treasure of the hire industry on the canals around here.

Don't think so: the infamously stolen Holly and the much travelled Maple are gone, the newish Oak is not the old 70' wooden top version. Some of the other current green boats were I think repaints of new-to-them boats, and the rest were bought-ins still in their original liveries.

We've been boating that stretch for nearly 20 years now, and of all the hire fleets along that length Andersen are always the most immaculately turned out, and Middlewich (under previously and current guises) the least. And locking through Middlewich it always seemed to be the case that Andersen would have most or all boats out, and Middlewich would always have a few in - I'm talking summer midweek here, so not just being turned around.