All Boatyards

Boatyard and chandlery on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Hilperton, near Trowbridge — described as the largest chandlery on the canal. Services include engine and gearbox repairs, boat fitting and painting, dry dock, moorings and pump-out.

Bulls Bridge Docks is a long-established working boatyard on the Grand Union Canal at Bulls Bridge Junction, Southall, where the Paddington Arm meets the main line. The yard offers dry dock and wet dock facilities for narrowboats and widebeams, handling hull blacking, welding and steelwork, engine servicing, and general repairs and maintenance for boat owners throughout west London and beyond. Bulls Bridge Junction itself is a historic and busy meeting point on the canal network, long associated with commercial carrying in the days of working boats, and today it remains a hub of activity for boaters heading between the Grand Union main line, the Paddington Arm into central London, and the Slough Arm.

Harefield Marina, run by M.J. Musk Marine Sale (Harefield) Ltd, has been a family-run fixture on the Grand Union Canal at Bridge 180 since 1976. Just five minutes from the M25/M40 and within a day’s cruising of the River Thames, the marina offers a well-stocked chandlery, a slipway taking narrowboats from 30ft to 67ft, covered wet-dock storage, hull blacking and anode work, engine servicing, and boat sales and brokerage. A useful stop for maintenance and supplies on the approach into west London.

Blisworth Tunnel Boats (trading as Mill Wharf Boats) is a family-run boatyard and chandlery based at Mill Wharf on the Grand Union Canal in Blisworth, Northamptonshire, close to the southern portal of Blisworth Tunnel and a short stroll from the Canal Museum at Stoke Bruerne. The yard offers narrowboat hire and canal boat holidays, boat sales, and a full range of boat servicing and repairs from its dry dock and wet dock. Facilities include bottled gas, diesel, a water point, Elsan disposal, and pump-out services, making it a handy stop for boaters passing through this popular stretch of the Grand Union Canal’s Northampton Arm approach.

Whilton Marina is on the Grand Union Canal main line at Whilton Locks, near Daventry in Northamptonshire. It sits just below Buckby Bottom Lock No 13, at the foot of the Buckby flight, about a mile and a half south of Norton Junction. It has around 200 berths on lit metal piers, each with 240V hook-up and water, plus showers, toilets and free WiFi for moorers. The yard has a 9,000 sq ft refurbishment workshop, a boat hoist, two slipways, a wet dock and a floating dock, and offers blacking and overplating. There’s also a chandlery, a café and a large boat sales and brokerage operation. Whilton Marina Ltd has traded since 1971 and is open seven days a week.