Amenities

About Peter Le Marchant Trust

We have three boats:

• “Symphony” – the day boat, carrying 26 passengers every day between March and October, weekends included.
• “Serenade” –  the holiday boat, taking 10 passengers for 4-night holidays.

Both are broad-beam boats, 65’ long and 10’6” wide. Both have full-time Skippers who hold Boatmaster’s Licences and are trained in First Aid.

• “Melody” – a 65’ narrowboat, available for weekly hire by a family or group with a disabled or seriously ill member.

All the boats are fully equipped for the maximum safety and comfort of our passengers, with hydraulic lifts, wheelchair friendly toilets and showers, full central heating, resuscitation equipment.

Last year we carried over 5,000 passengers of all ages and every disability.

“Symphony” and “Serenade” are the total responsibility of their Skippers, who maintain, repair and paint them during the winter, when they are surveyed by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency. They are also responsible for maintaining “Melody”.

For over forty years the Trust has provided day outings and holidays on waterways for people of all ages with any kind of disability or serious illness.

Peter Le Marchant died very young in the early ‘70s. His sister Clare searched for some time to find the best way to commemorate his life.   On a trip on a friend’s canal boat in 1973, she hit on the idea of building a boat for the disabled. That friend was a founder Trustee and, having resigned as a Trustee, took over the running of the Trust in 2002.

The first boat was a 40’ narrowboat called “Matilda”; she carried her first 12 passengers in 1976. As a result of the success of that first year, the Trust was formed in early 1977.

Various new-buildings followed, every time with improved facilities for the safety and comfort of the passengers. After a few years we realised that we could offer much better facilities if we operated broad-beam boats, which are 4 feet wider than narrow-boats.