User Information.

This section of the website gives you an overview of the equipment on the boat, where you can go and gives you access to our booking information.

We encourage maximum use of the boat by community groups, since the boat accommodates up to 12 people:

• for youth or other groups as a day trip, weekend away or week long activity.
• as an educational resource, for schools / groups to learn more about the waterways, operating a narrowboat, negotiating locks.
• as an opportunity to see an entirely different view of local towns or taking a 'back door' route into London on the Grand Union Canal.
• for team building; getting members of a group working together and knowing each other better.
• in order to gain access to the differing interests and hobbies that range from canal and industrial architecture to wildlife and environmental matters.
• for all the community to enjoy the waterways and experience the richness of a slowed pace of life on the canal.
• for building youth group memories that last a lifetime.

To find out available dates, go to our bookings diary from the link to the left of this page. You can also contact Janet White on 01923 224411 or bookings@swhertsnarrowboat.org.uk, or download our booking form [pdf format] which can be printed, completed and posted.

About the boat and where you can go.

Dick's Folly was purpose built to the design of the Project. The boat accommodates a maximum of 12 passengers.

She is a traditional built narrowboat, laid in 1987 and fitted out during 1998. She was refitted in 2010 and the internal decoration is bright and cheerful. It should be noted that the boat is not designed for wheelchair use. See The Boat for more information.

An excellent journey planning tool can be found at CanalplanAC. Canalplan AC is a web-based program designed to help you plan a journey on the Grand Union Canal and Britain's inland waterways.

Cruising North.

A week's cruise north will take in the beautiful towns of Berkhampstead and Leighton Buzzard, the Tring summit and Marsworth flight of locks, the Wendover Arm, the Aylesbury Arm, the new town of Milton Keynes, on the Stoke Bruerne (with its waterways museum) and the famous Blisworth tunnel. View or download our route information sheet [in pdf format].

Cruising South.

Cruising south takes in the beauties of Cassiobury Park and the outskirts of London, including the Slough Arm, onto the Hanwell flight into Brentford. Turning off at the Bulls Bridge takes you into the Paddington Arm to savour the delights of Little Venice, the Maida Vale tunnel, Camden Lock, Regents Park Zoo and the Islington tunnel. View or download our route information sheet [in pdf format].

Location and Cruising.

See the map for the Project location on the Grand Union Canal, near Abbots Langley. Our base offers secure, off street parking for several vehicles for those using the boat. Because the entrance to the base is locked, organisers of trips need to inform parents and friends coming to collect people who are on a trip that the gates will be unlocked only on the return of the boat: the mooring stage is visible from the gate. The site has water, electricity, a barbeque and is nearby a rubbish disposal, a petrol station and a shop.

We are always pleased to welcome people to the base to see our facilities before they use the boat.