Guide To Braunston Boats Ltd

Braunston Boats is simply the start point of this walk along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal towards the Marina.

Walking along a canal towpath couldn’t be more effortless and that includes the stroll of approximately one mile between Braunstone Wharf and the nearby marina. The walking is flat and easy surrounded by an environment of calm, green and rural, and accompanied by enough wildlife to keep you entertained

to add to your pleasure. If all of that is not enough there’s a wonderful reward to be enjoyed at the marina end of your stroll. For three days of the week (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) there’s a delightful boat-cafe-restaurant called ‘Gongoozlers’ serving brunch style food and drinks that can be enjoyed either in the adjacent land side garden or water side barge before you return along the towpath to the wharf. All in all a two hour experience or less that’s not to be missed, which when tried once will need to be repeated many times. This is the stuff of dreams!

I will give five stars as we go back twenty years now and lots of water through the tunnel. GONGOOZAL just opening again after some time. The food is 2nd to none.Bloody good well presented and I recommend it to any one who likes a fry up including black pudding yummy 😋 see again when ever ladys phil jones . Autumn rose. ❤️

My narrowboat “Baron” is 45 years old, I’m confident that she’ll do another 45 years now (and the rest) thanks to the work of Roger and Mike Farrington. How Mike avoided setting 45 year old very dry pine interior tongue and groove cabin lining alight while welding new integrated hand rails full length along the roof of a 70 foot boat centimetres away from said lining escapes me, that shouldn’t be possible without creating fire. As far as I could see Mike spent weeks attacking the job in careful sectional iterations to avoid heat build up. The existing plate on the roof and sides haven’t been distorted in any way as a consequence of this work and given that the cabin was built with only 3 mill plate originally this just beggars belief, how can you be THAT good with an arc welder. Mike and Roger also doubled the bottom of my boat part-length at my request and the quality and penetration of the welds around the chine and across are something you just don’t see anymore.

You could not find better craftsmen, Roger is obviously already widely acknowledged as being one of the very finest narrowboat hull builders that we’ve had, Mike is clearly a chip off the old block. If you’re lucky enough to be able to find a spot with these guys to work on your boat, take it.

Only walked past but seemed a pleasant enough establishment.. though could be awkward for a single boater needing to moor and use the lock.

Our boat has been out of the water for several jobs, blacking, repaint to the tunnel bands, new sacrificial anodes to the stern and fixing a long term problem with a loose rudder blade. All have been completed to a high standard at a fair price. Either side of the time out of the water we had a pleasant mooring within the boatyard and stayed aboard while the boat was out of the water too. Many thanks to Juliet, Roger and Mike for a warm welcome and great work.

EDIT. Back out of the water for a few days. As before the team could mot have been more helpful.