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Company History
The Company was founded in 1953 as a carrying company
with three pairs of narrow boats.
The boats mainly carried coal from the Coventry coal fields
to the London area and timber from Brentford to Birmingham.
However times were already changing and in 1956 it became
clear that carrying would continue to decline and a cruising
holiday would become the trade of the future. Some boats
were sold and others converted. 'Benevolence' being converted
into an 8 berth, 'Duchess of Athol' was cut in half to make
two 4 berths. The stern half named 'Lady Flora' was destined
to travel backwards for the rest of her life. An ex London
Tug 'Tyburn' was purchased, renamed 'Perseverance' and converted
into a six berth cruiser along with the ex horse drawn icebreaker
'Princess'.
In 1960 the company was bought by Major and Mrs. Griffin.
In 1965 workshops and a modern dry-dock were built. As new
craft joined the fleet the original boats were sold and by
1978 the whole fleet had been purpose built in the new workshops.
The company also ran passenger boats and over a period of
30 years operated five different boats the first of which
was horse drawn. In the spring of 1979 Major & Mrs. Griffin
retired and now their son James operates 30 of the finest
narrowboats.
As you can see we have an extensive tradition and envied
reputation of building, maintaining and hiring luxury narrow
boats.
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