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Heron narrowboats


MichaelG

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Well last weekend we visited Northamptonshire to continue the search for our narrowboat. We found and made an offer on a 57 feet Heron boatbuilders narrowboat. The offer was accepted and we are now keeping our fingers crossed that the survey will be good so that we can complete the purchase. 

From what I have been able to find on the interweb Heron boatbuilders went out of business in 2006.

The brokers details indicate the boat was made in 2006 and fitted by David Forth so I imagine it must have been amongst their last boats.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who owns or has owned a Heron boat or has any information about them.

 

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Heron were based by the side of the Calder and Hebble canal and were building bespoke boats for about ten years. They built narrowboats and broad beams to the buyer requirements and turned out some strange looking boats. I considered buying from them and visited the factory to view their work in progress and a couple of completed boats and looked at their working practices. Everything was very professional and the build standard was high but so were the prices and I didn’t buy from them. I think that when they closed there were some incomplete boats sold for finishing off so maybe this was one of them.

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Was that the firm run by the husband-and-wife team, Bernard and Margaret? If so, according to their adverts in the boatimags, he did the fitting-out and she took care of business - suggesting that they did not build their own shells. I don't know who did.

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28 minutes ago, Athy said:

Was that the firm run by the husband-and-wife team, Bernard and Margaret? If so, according to their adverts in the boatimags, he did the fitting-out and she took care of business - suggesting that they did not build their own shells. I don't know who did.

I think you're thinking of Triton Boats of Salford. 

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Just now, pearley said:

I think you're thinking of Triton Boats of Salford. 

I did wonder if it was Heron or Triton - but I thought that Bernard and Margaret had shut down, and the internet shows that Triton still exists.

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We have a Heron. Built in 2004. Two owners - we bought in 2009. Gorgeous boat! Just been for a bare-metal then up repaint at Streethay. 58' trad. I particularly love the 'sweep' of the roof line.

voyager september 17 small.jpg

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31 minutes ago, Jo_ said:

We have a Heron. Built in 2004. Two owners - we bought in 2009. Gorgeous boat! Just been for a bare-metal then up repaint at Streethay. 58' trad. I particularly love the 'sweep' of the roof line.

voyager september 17 small.jpg

I realise it is difficult to tell from just one photo but that looks like a lovely paint job.:)

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14 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Bootiful - I was about to say the same, until, I noticed they had forgotten to mask of the mushrooms (and they appear to have a fair bit of overspray on them)

No. It's my photography! Mushrooms are fine 

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

I did wonder if it was Heron or Triton - but I thought that Bernard and Margaret had shut down, and the internet shows that Triton still exists.

Pretty sure they've reserected several times. 

  • Greenie 1
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  • 1 year later...
On 15/03/2018 at 10:32, Jo_ said:

We have a Heron. Built in 2004. Two owners - we bought in 2009. Gorgeous boat! Just been for a bare-metal then up repaint at Streethay. 58' trad. I particularly love the 'sweep' of the roof line.

voyager september 17 small.jpg

We have a 2004 Heron too, and think the world of her. We bought her in 2015 and for the past three years have been based in the Fenland waterways. We’ve had some super cruising over here but are relocating to Shropshire so heading back to the canals. Repaint is booked for 2020- we’re going the long way round! 

7CD3353E-E277-4237-80F2-7CAD544B3967.jpeg

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Nice one, Chris. If your long way round brings you up the Soar and along the T&M to Mercia Marina, come and see us! Our boats could do a recognition donut in the middle of the Marina waters!

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6 minutes ago, Jo_ said:

Nice one, Chris. If your long way round brings you up the Soar and along the T&M to Mercia Marina, come and see us! Our boats could do a recognition donut in the middle of the Marina waters!

We may well do so!  Mercia is where we bought Cease Firing.  We see few other Heron boats.  The last time was at Watford locks where there happened to be three at once, one up and two going down.  

Is there any sort of Heron owners group at all, do you know?  

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Not sure why this thread has risen from the grave, but it seems like this would be the time to mention that our boat is a 2003 Heron. 

 

Funnily enough, it was only because we did a search specifically for Heron boats for sale - having seen a couple of others we liked the look of - that we ever found Ferndale. (There was no set asking price, so it didn't show up when browsing Apollo Duck in our usual way.)

 

We viewed Ferndale and another Heron boat of the same age on the same day. On the face of it they were very similar - 55ft, laid out bedroom-bathroom-dinette-galley-saloon - but the other had very low headroom towards the back, in the bedroom. No idea why.

20190505_203155.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

3A983496-F608-4997-8A46-2FB01D0A5406.jpeg.729976e3f41997b93a91506386223540.jpegHello again,

I just thought I’d post a photo of the repaint referred to in my previous post.  Thanks to Covid we were unable to complete our journey from East Anglia to Cheshire - we reached Northamptonshire and Cease Firing had to be loaded up to complete the trip by road.  Very undignified for our lovely boat!  

Were very pleased with the result, thanks to Willow Boats for a beautiful job.  The celebration  cruise was to Llangollen.  Not too busy, super trip.  

Edited by ChrisTonks
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44 minutes ago, ChrisTonks said:

3A983496-F608-4997-8A46-2FB01D0A5406.jpeg.729976e3f41997b93a91506386223540.jpegHello again,

I just thought I’d post a photo of the repaint referred to in my previous post.  Thanks to Covid we were unable to complete our journey from East Anglia to Cheshire - we reached Northamptonshire and Cease Firing had to be loaded up to complete the trip by road.  Very undignified for our lovely boat!  

Were very pleased with the result, thanks to Willow Boats for a beautiful job.  The celebration  cruise was to Llangollen.  Not too busy, super trip.  

What colour were the dogs before?

You must have come past our house - we're by the Well Creek in Upwell. When did you go through?
 

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Haha!  Black - they found a very muddy ditch during one of our hikes along the towpath!  

We made this Llangollen trip during the last week of July.  We began moving from Upware in Cambridgeshire last summer; went through Upwell at the end of June.  We bought fish and chips!  

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