How to: Travel the Great West Way by Narrowboat

Want to meet the locals on the Great West Way? Hire a narrowboat for your journey. This languid form of transport moves at strolling pace, perfect for striking up conversations about the weather, the scenery or – more likely – your manoeuvring skills, with people you meet along the way.

There’s something about the gentle passing of a narrowboat that draws the eye. On a narrowboat you aren’t rushing across the landscape, catching the merest glimpse of an ivy-clad pub or a bucolic landscape of rolling chalky hills, instead you are floating amongst it, part of a picture of England that is worthy of a postcard. Expect to be photographed. 

The Kennet & Avon Canal 

The Kennet & Avon Canal runs along the route of the Great West Way. Boats have cruised along this canal for over 200 years. It runs for a total of 87 miles (140km) incorporating navigable sections of the River Avon (from Bath to Bristol) and the River Kennet (from Newbury to Reading). There are 105 locks along the way and the waterway can be used to travel from Bristol all the way to London, by joining the River Thames at Reading. Hire a narrowboat and you can travel the Great West Way entirely by water.

The Kennet & Avon Canal was first fully opened in 1810. Its story, though, was not a successful one and the waterway never prospered, especially after the Great Western Railway opened in the mid 19th century, taking trade from the canal. It fell into decline and by the 1960s was a sorry sight, no longer open to boats.

It was local enthusiasts who saved the canal, and today it has been fully restored and is more popular than ever. Since the Queen officially reopened the waterway in 1990 it has brought thousands of holidaymakers to the very heart of the English countryside. A journey along the Great West Way by narrowboat opens up the landscape slowly, unfurling rolling chalky hills and a patchwork of fields and forests at a leisurely and unhurried pace. The slower you travel, the more you’ll see.

Narrowboat hire

There are numerous places along the Kennet & Avon Canal to hire a narrowboat, with most clustered around the central section of the canal. Most places hire out boats by the week (seven nights), with some options for shorter hires, usually either Friday to Monday or Monday to Friday. 

Cruising the River Avon or River Kennet requires a licence, as well as experience of narrowboating, so if this is your first time at the tiller you’ll need to stick to the canal itself, which runs for 57 miles between Bath and Newbury. You can expect to be able to travel at about two miles per hour and are likely to want to cruise for around four hours a day – so in a week don’t plan to cover more than about 50 miles. You will need to add about 15 minutes for each lock and you will almost certainly have to return the boat to the same location you picked it up. 

Driving a narrowboat

You don’t need a licence to drive a narrowboat on the canal and for the most part, manoeuvring one is easy. The driver stands at the back end of the boat at the tiller, a type of long lever that is pushed left to steer to the right and vice versa. Unlike in a car, movement takes a few seconds to happen so planning ahead is key, though the speed limit on all canals is only 4mph – nothing happens too quickly. You’ll also find that steering from the back means you can see the whole boat ahead of you, as well as where you are going.

The Kennet & Avon Canal has a large number of locks, used to change the water level so that your boat can travel either up or down hill. Two boats can fit in most locks at once and it is good canal practice to ensure you are travelling with another boat where possible. This saves water and also mean there are two crews to operate the locks. Since they are opened and closed using very heavy wooden gates this can really speed things up. You might find an audience gathers at some locks too, and are often keen to get involved.

The longest section of locks is the Caen Hill flight just outside the market town of Devizes. This incorporates 29 locks in total, with 16 of them marching in a straight line up the hillside and takes at least half a day to travel up (or down). This is best included only in longer itineraries. 

If you’d rather avoid locks altogether there are some stretches of the canal that are entirely lock-free. East of Devizes there are several miles up to Pewsey Bridge without locks and you can hire a narrowboat from Honeystreet, in the centre of this section. Hire in Bradford on Avon and there is just one lock, as soon as you set off, then none until you reach Bath. 

Life on a narrowboat

Life onboard a narrowboat is slow so it’s best to let go of any ideas about getting anywhere fast and just enjoy the ride – pour a cup of tea or glass of wine and watch the landscape pass you by.

Mooring is allowed more or less anywhere along the canal, as long as you tie up on the towpath side and do not block a lock, bridge or water point. There are often metal rings to tie onto and narrowboats all come with mooring pins and a gangplank. 

Some of the best places to moor are at canalside pubs, where you can often tie up in the beer garden. Overnight mooring is permitted at the Black Horse in Devizes, the Barge Inn at Seend Cleeve, the Barge Inn in Bradford on Avon and the George Inn in Bathhampton. 

Most narrowboats are small, with limited amounts of storage so it’s best to keep luggage to a minimum. On most boats the dining table converts into a bed so if you are told it sleeps four, this almost certainly means two in one separate bedroom and two in the living space. If you want to avoid the nightly reconfiguration of your dining space it can be worth booking a boat that can take a larger number of people than you need it to – and always check the number of actual bedrooms you’ll get. 

You can expect a reasonably well equipped kitchen – called the galley – complete with a cooker and a fridge, as well as a bathroom with shower and toilet. Bikes are almost always welcome onboard and can be stored on the roof of the boat. 

HOW TO: 
The following companies, all based on the Kennet & Avon canal, have narrowboats for hire. They get booked up fast so reserving your boat well ahead of your trip is advised. 

• Bruce Accessible Boats 

• Canal Holidays

• Foxhangers

• Honeystreet Boats

• Moonraker Canalboats

• Sally Narrowboats

• White Horse Boats

• Wiltshire Narrowboats

• Devizes Marina Village 

For more information on travelling the Great West way by narrowboat, take a look at our boats page in Stay and marinas page in Explore.