Canal holiday company Anglo Welsh acquires Sally Narrowboats

The narrowboat holiday company Anglo Welsh has bought Sally Narrowboats, offering canal boat hire on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Bradford on Avon Marina in Wiltshire, UK.

Carl Cowlishaw, operations director for Anglo Welsh, says: “We’re delighted to announce that Sally Narrowboats on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Bradford on Avon are joining the Anglo Welsh fleet.

“The Kennet & Avon Canal is one of the most popular on the network for canal boat holidays, with iconic destinations such as the Caen Hill flight of locks at Devizes and the Bath stone aqueducts at Avoncliff and Dundas. We’re pleased to be able to offer our customers another boat hire location on this beautiful waterway, adding to our Monkton Combe base at Brassknocker Basin and Sydney Wharf in Bath, through our partnership with Bath Narrowboats. We’ll also be offering day boat hire here.

“In 2022 we acquired Silsden Boats, on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in West Yorkshire, offering wide beam boats as well as narrowboats for hire, along with boatbuilding facilities.  This winter, we’ve built three new boats for the Anglo Welsh fleet there. These new 60ft Ocean Class cruiser stern narrowboats for up to ten people are available to hire from Bradford on Avon, Bunbury and Great Haywood.”

On a short canal boat holiday from Bradford on Avon, boaters can head west to Bath and back, cruising across the impressive Bath stone aqueducts at Avoncliff and Dundas. Or they can east to the bottom of the spectacular Caen Hill Flight of locks at Devizes, passing through the village of Seend and its popular canalside Barge Inn.

On a week’s holiday from Bradford on Avon, canal boat holidaymakers can travel up the Caen Hill Flight of locks at Devizes and head on to Pewsey and Great Bedwyn, passing through the beautiful Vale of Pewsey and Savernake Forest. Experienced boats can continue travelling west from Bath along the tidal Bristol Avon, to Bristol’s Floating Harbour.