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Published: March 29th 2011
Lyneal Wharf ref:0026
Home base of the Lyneal TrustWe spent a wet week in June, 2010, boating on the Llangollen Canal on board the
Lyneal Trust's 70' narrowboat 'Shropshire Lass II', travelling from the boat's base at Lyneal, near Ellesmere in Shropshire, to LLangollen in Wales. Then back and on to Whitechurch for a day returning to the base at Lyneal.
The Lyneal Trust is a charity whose aim is to enable disabled people with their families and friends to enjoy canal and narrowboating holidays from their base at Lyneal.
The Lyneal Trust offer:- - an 8-berth wheelchair accessible narrowboat cruiser - 'Shropshire Lass II' ;
- a 12 seat, wheelchair accessible, 'day' narrowboat – ‘The Shropshire Lad';
- two, wheelchair accessible dormitory buildings sleeping 6 people in each; and
- a Victorian canal-workers cottage offering 2 single beds on the top floor but is only wheelchair accessible on the ground-floor.
The 'Shropshire Lass II' features an electrically operated hydraulic lift , enabling wheelchair users to move between accommodation and top-deck.
Steering the boat is done either from the traditional tiller or by a power-assisted wheel. The electronic bow-thruster is a great help to anyone of any ability.
The boat has full central heating, sleeps
GnH Ref:0013
G, H and 'Shropshire Lass II' eight people on bunk beds, has a wheelchair accessible shower/loo + extra loo, a fully fitted galley, a large lounge with TV and radio, a removable dining table and access to a seating area in the bow.
In the picturesque gardens (designed by Percy Thrower) which lay behind the boats home moorings at Lyneal Wharf, the Trust also offer holiday 'cottage' accommodation.
The original timber clad 'Wharf Cottage' is the epitome of 'quaint'. On the ground floor there are: 2 loos, a shower-room, a functional kitchen. There’s a lounge with 'orthopaedic' furniture and a conservatory/dining room housing a basic dining table and chairs. From here, one can glimpse the cabin-tops of boats as they chug slowly by.
One needs to be fairly agile to negotiate the incredibly steep and narrow stairway leading to the two small single bedrooms on the upper floor. No bedding is provided and when we visited, the mattresses of all single pine-framed beds were of the blue-plastic covered hospital type. The chest of draws looked as though they had seen better days years ago.
In addition to 'Wharf Cottage', there are two purpose-built chalets, offering dormitory style sleeping facilities for up to
12 people.
Each chalet has two bedrooms, with 3 single beds in each bedroom. The bedrooms are separated by an entrance hallway and wheelchair accessible 'wet-room'.
Another building provides a large games and utility room. It has Ping-Pong and Pool tables as well as a washing machine, tumble dryer and large victorian style airer.
Outside, there are both steps and a wheelchair ramp to the Lyneal Wharf mooring. Here the wooden garden benches provide a great place from which to feed the ever hungry ducks and swans, or simply to watch, wave and maybe swap a word or two with the narrowboat’s crews as they glide up and down the canal.
It would be hard to describe the facilities as anything more than clean and basic - on the other hand and to be fair, we found the lack of 'prissiness' advantageous.
The functional tiled hallway and wet-rooms meant we didn't worry about coming in soggy and dirty from tramping along muddy tow-paths. We'd just chuck our wet, muddy gear on the tiled hallway floor and go straight into the shower. If our clothes were wet (it's the UK - so hardly a time they
TV and a cosy coal fire Ref: 0199
When nights are too cool to sit on the canal tow-path and watch the world glide by, the low beamed-ceiling and open coal fire in the lounge create a cosy atmosphere in which to relax. aren't!) we could chuck them in the tumble dryer or over the airer.
The wheelchair accessible setting is perfect for parties with members having mobility problems and the practical facilities make it easy to care for those with problems of a more intimate nature.
Heading on the boat towards Llangollen, we passed through a number of small bridges and a tunnel, all with only inches to spare either side which of course required extra concentration. However, that didn't mean that at other times whoever was steering could daydream! One had to be constantly alert and anticipate moves well in advance and just a few seconds lack of concentration would mean the boat wandering off course.
With such a long boat, any deviation from the desired course seemed take a long time to correct and the potential for accidents of one sort or another was ever present.
So, while the crew could relax and watch the stunning scenery drift by, whoever was helming needed to be focused and vigalent, which they found added to their appreciation of the countryside around them.
Our first 'port of call' was to buy victalls and provisions from Tesco's at
Parked at Tesco
The crew relaxing after shopping at Tesco's Ellesmere.
There can't be many Tesco's with a car AND BOAT park! Ellesmere...there can't be many supermarkets having a car and a BOAT park! The cruise there took us past a number of lakes or 'meres' including 'Ellesmere'. Mere is generally taken to mean a shallow body of water, but for the lexicographically minded reader, a deeper explanation is provided
here on Wikipedia .
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Dave Phillips
non-member comment
Thank you and what a pleasure
Yes a big thanks for the blog and for explanations ... Having boated as a hirer 20+ times and 7 of these on boats for disabled I found this very honest assesment a pleasure ... Basic but safe is always best ..... and more power to the trust for their work