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The Idea
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The Idea
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Mike and Liz Holloway decided to sell their cottage in June 2001, ten years after moving from Sheffield to the picturesque Derbyshire Peak District village of Ashford in the Water. They wanted to buy a narrowboat and spend four years continuously cruising the inland waterways of England and Wales.
The trouble was that Mike, a semi-retired journalist, was 63 years old, while Liz at 55 was still fully employed as local director of a major charity. The reaction from their youngest son and his wife*, and from some of their closest friends, was not encouraging. You’re turning your backs on security, you’ll miss your friends, you’ve put down roots in the village, living full time on a boat won’t be the same as a couple of weeks holiday in the summer. And what about the cold wet winter with its short days and long nights?
But, Mike writes, we had other priorities. If we waited until Liz retired at 60, I would be approaching 69. If we wanted an adventure before it became totally impractical we knew we should get on with it. Throughout our marriage we had enjoyed many holidays on the canal, the earliest on a small cruiser to Llangollen, the latest two years ago when we joined up with two close friends, hired a 57 footer and travelled down the Oxford Canal, along the Thames to Limehouse and up the Grand Union back to Braunston. We knew some of the problems we could meet — and we spent many months reading about countless others in books and from other canal enthusiasts through their news groups or personal web sites.
Our biggest and most reassuring decision was to buy new rather than take a chance on a second hand boat. Despite advice to the contrary, our reasons were many and convincing, at least to us. Above all, the guarantee and back-up service offered on a newly built boat were important to a couple with limited practical experience of marine engines and narrowboat electrics.
The clincher was meeting Jon Hunt at Heron Boats in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. That repeated feeling in the pit of the stomach when we woke up each morning and the nagging question "Are we really giving up our lovely country cottage for the risk of the unknown?" suddenly vanished. Something of Jon's own quiet confidence passed to us as we looked at several boats at various stages of construction and at a finished boat waiting for collection at Mirfield.
So, we put down a £500 deposit on a slot in September that would mean our boat would be ready in December. took a deep breath and put our house on the market.
*They have since come round to the idea. Perhaps they realised that the older parents get the madder they become, but whatever their reasoning, they were very supportive through the months of boat-building. They have also visited Snecklifter regularly, and enjoyed it immensely.
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Liz Holloway
Mike Holloway
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Cottage for sale
Selling our cottage in Ashford in the Water, which was put on the market with the Halifax Building Society in Bakewell, was less stressful than we expected. We quickly received and accepted an offer and by September 7 2001 the cheque was in our bank account. We had the money to go ahead with Snecklifter.
Nerve wracking? Of course it was, but we were convinced we made the right decision and the more boaters we met the less we worried. Bryn Jones of Driftwood 75 - another Heron boat - and John and Yvonne on Gypsy Girl were specially reassuring when we visited them at Whaley Bridge. The cameraderie of the Cut is very powerful.
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