A glorious day

I had a great night out last night. I'm sure that we could bore the socks off of most people, but we just love talking about boats and the cut! That's the great thing about having friends around the canal system - you get to catch up with the news from all corners our country.

Whilst in conversation last night, it seems that our businesses have changed in similar ways from previous years during this current climate. The demand for boat building has eased right off, but areas such as boat hire are more popular than ever before. I think that our bookings have picked up as we are now using a couple of booking agents, but across the industry bookings seem to be up due to the fact that more customers are taking holidays in the UK rather than flying abroad due to the current problems around the world.

It's been a glorious day here at Norbury today. I didn't think that it would be due to the heavy rainfall that we had in the night, but by 10am the sun was out and cheering us all up. The birds have been merrily singing and flying down off of the shop roof to eat the crumbs left behind by the customers who have been having tea and cake from our Tea room out on the wharf. It certainly brings the crowds out, a bit of sun - lets hope there is plenty more of it to come ;-)


Ralph and Mick undocked Lavender Lee which now looks resplendent with her bottom blacked, counter bands, gunnel tops and sides painted. They then docked the shared owned boat Ryebank which is the last boat to have it's winter maintenance completed here this winter. Unfortunately it was booked in for work a couple of months ago, but they got stranded in the ice at Braunston, Northamptonshire. Ralph's now pressure washed her off and is busy preparing the gunnels and counter bands to accept some paint tomorrow.


Mick has completed the majority of the internal works on Ryebank and has been doing a few jobs around the yard and on our hire boats this afternoon. He has also turned Phantom around as she is off out tomorrow afternoon until Friday.

I don't know where the days go to. They seem to just fly by! I've sat and done a fire risk assessment for our Holiday Cottage today along with updating some of the information and pictures of the boats for sale and advertising the discounts that we are offering on our hire fleet.

Talking about our Holiday Cottage, it's "upside down" layout makes the ideal place to come and enjoy Norbury Junction and the surrounding areas, to sit and watch the boats pass by, the horses trot down the road and the wildlife out in their true habitat across the rolling countryside (see our testimonials). Sleeping a maximum of eight, Wharf Cottage makes an ideal holiday location for all of the family. Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, Stafford, Alton Towers are all within easy reach of Norbury Junction. To take advantage of this truly superb location and reside at Wharf Cottage for a holiday that will be treasured for years to come please CLICK HERE to visit our booking agents website.


That's it from me today. I'm off for three days during the middle of the coming week, so when Simon doesn't write anything about what I have been up to, it doesn't mean that I am asleep!

See you at the weekend!

Best regards,

David