Deja vu

[MillieB]

Avo, we too had a narrow boat in the eighties ( a very old one). Happy memories of some great holidays. However, we sold it after five years as our eldest DD kept trying to walk home each evening along the tow path. She was thirteen and said that when she got back to school her friends would have been to France and Spain, and she had just been to Stoke on Trent! We sold the boat and took them camping in France the next summer.
Since then she and her friends have hired narrow boats to have some love!y holidays. She is a travel agent and been all over the world but prefers our canals!

[Daisy]

MillieB - Stoke-on-Trent is a WONDERFUL place for a holiday!

[MillieB]

It was actually the year that they had a garden festival there, the year that Fergie and Andrew got married. It was hailing when we arrived to the new marina there so we went down the Cauldon Canal and returned to the festival in glorious sunshine a few days later. My DDs main concern was that Stoke is only an hour away from home! She was also a terrible teenager but grew up to be lovely!

[ZIZI]

My brother lived on a custom built narrow boat for many years. He had it moored one Christmas at Bradford on Avon and there was an enormous storm. The whole family spent Christmas Day saving the boat from sinking. This was a long time ago, probably forty years.....

[Daisy]

It was actually the year that they had a garden festival there, the year that Fergie and Andrew got married. It was hailing when we arrived to the new marina there so we went down the Cauldon Canal and returned to the festival in glorious sunshine a few days later. My DDs main concern was that Stoke is only an hour away from home! She was also a terrible teenager but grew up to be lovely!

I'm glad the sun eventually shone for you. The Garden Festival was built on the site of the old Shelton Bar (Iron and steel works) and at the time it seemed to me like a nail in the coffin of the city's industrial history. It's a bit naughty of me to say Stoke is a wonderful place for a holiday since I hardly ever go back there!

Zizi - that must have been a Christmas to remember! I hope the boat survived.

[Avo]

We don't have it now - we sold it when we bought our house in France. It was only 4 berth and we went to visit it as it was being built at Stibbington near Peterborough.