Narrowboat Magazine

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Every month, NarrowBoat brings you the best in waterway history and heritage, through rare archive pictures and the writings of acknowledged experts.

NarrowBoat is available now by subscription, or from boatyards and canalside shops. It is not available in newsagents.

The National Waterways Museum has joined forces with NarrowBoat magazine publishers Waterways World to launch a new Supporters’ Scheme, allowing members to contribute a regular annual gift to help the National Waterways Museum to buy the essential materials needed to continue its vitally important restoration work on the national collection of historic boats.

As part of the Supporters’ Scheme you will gain free entry to each of the three National Waterways Museums at Ellesmere Port, Gloucester Docks and Stoke Bruerne for a whole year and be kept up to date on the boat restoration projects your donation is helping to make possible with twice yearly updates by post.

All supporters will also receive a subscription to the quarterly NarrowBoat magazine – the ideal read for anyone interested in the history and heritage of Britain’s fascinating inland waterways. Including articles on famous fleets, preservation, waterways art, genealogy and much more, NarrowBoat brings the past of the inland waterways alive once more with glorious images and irresistible tales of times gone by.

Supporters will also be entitled to a 10% discount in all National Waterways Museum shops and cafés as well as on all books published by Waterways World Ltd.

The National Waterways Museum care for a nationally important collection of 80 historic boats. From a 1000-year old log boat to a concrete barge and from a coracle to a grab dredger, the collection illustrates the many different types of vessels which have carried cargoes and people on our canals and rivers over the centuries.

At Ellesmere Port, a dedicated team of museum staff and volunteers is working together to improve the condition of these historic boats. Over the past few months, great progress has been made. Bantam has been returned to running condition, Bacup has had a new floor and Merak, Scorpio and Gwendoline have been refloated.

To continue this important work, the team need your help. This year the National Waterways Museum plan to employ a second skilled member of staff to help train more volunteers to do more work, and also require money for materials: wood, paint, canvas and engine parts.

Over the next few years, the Supporters’ Scheme members’ regular donations will help the National Waterways Museum to re-establish a fully working boatyard at Ellesmere Port to allow them to restore and maintain our historic boats as well as to put more boats back on display at the museum and out on the waterway network. It will also go towards helping them to train others, in particular young people, in traditional boat building and repair skills.

Join the National Waterways Museum Supporters’ Scheme and be a part of an exciting new initiative to save Britain’s historic inland waterways fleet. Your regular gift of £39* will help save some of the nation’s most remarkable boats.

With your help, more boats can be rescued and returned to their former glory to tell the story of Britain’s canals and rivers.

*From your annual payment of £39, at least £20 will be passed on to the museum to help restore the historic boats.

Click here to sign up today.