Latest news with #narrowboat
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Independent
What happened when this woman swapped her London rent for a narrowboat
Kyrie Morris, a 33-year-old writer, swapped her London flat for a narrowboat, reducing her living costs significantly. After renovating the boat, she embarked on a 357-mile journey to Leeds. Upon arrival, her engine failed, and later, a fire damaged part of the boat. Despite these setbacks, Morris continues to live on her narrowboat, documenting her experiences on TikTok. She describes the lifestyle as having "extreme lows" but also "extreme highs" and a sense of freedom.
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Woman reveals ‘extreme highs and lows' of swapping London rent for a narrowboat
A 33-year-old writer from Middlesbrough found "freedom" after trading London rent for life on a narrowboat, despite facing challenges like an exploding engine and a boat fire. Kyrie Morris purchased a £21,000 narrowboat in April 2022 using inheritance money, escaping the £1,600 monthly costs of London living. Initially, the boat lacked basic amenities like running water and electricity, resembling a "floating shed." However, Morris gradually transformed it, adding a kitchen cupboard, toilet, and a fold-down sofa bed. Accompanied by her Labrador, Snoop, she spent 15 months navigating London's canals while working as a bartender and completing her Master's degree. In July 2023, following the sudden death of a close friend and a failed attempt to get on Big Brother, she set off on a 357-mile journey to Leeds – but, upon arrival, her engine blew up, forcing her to stay put, and her boat later caught fire. Since moving onto the boat, Kyrie has spent around £12,000 on renovations and now spends around £800 a month, sharing her journey with 19,500 followers on TikTok under the handle @canalboatkiz. 'I would describe it as you get these extreme lows, but the highs are extreme as well and there's a feeling of freedom and adrenaline I've never personally found anywhere else, and I absolutely love it,' she said. While studying for a Master's degree in International Music Marketing in London, Kyrie was working at The Blues Kitchen in Camden to help make ends meet and make music industry connections. Her rent and bills for her one-bed flat in London came to £1,300 a month. She would often sit by the canals and think, 'Wow, what a life', and gradually began looking into the canal boat lifestyle. When it came time to renew her tenancy, Kyrie knew she wanted to stay in London, but without paying so much, living with others, or giving up a place that accepted dogs. At the end of her Master's, her granddad passed away, and her grandmother gave her some money. Kyrie used it to buy the cheapest boat she could find on Facebook Marketplace for £21,000 and moved in April 2022. Her family were very supportive of her decision, as she has always made 'mad decisions'. When she first bought the boat, it was like a 'floating shed', with no running water, toilet, or electricity. She had a gym membership to shower, charged her phone at work, and when she got home, had to wear a head torch and light a fire. Over time, she got solar panels connected to 12-volt batteries for electricity, a diesel heater for hot water and a cassette toilet she empties manually. Until recently, she didn't have a fridge and lived off a lot of tinned food, warmed on a gas camping stove. She said: 'I've got floors and nice painted walls and the rest of it, but I have one kitchen cupboard that I'm living out of. 'And bit by bit, I'm rebuilding the kitchen at the back. 'In the next month or two, the bathroom is going to get moved around. 'So the inside is, at the moment, very, very basic – I sleep on a sofa bed that I fold down.' Kyrie now spends about £800 a month on essentials, such as her canal licence, insurance and food, compared to the £1,600 she used to spend in London on bills, rent and food. She lived on the boat in London for 15 months, cruising canals like Regent's Canal and the Grand Union Canal, but then felt a sudden need to change things up. 'One of my best friends passed away really unexpectedly and I'd also applied for Big Brother at the time and got far through the audition process but did not get accepted onto the show,' Kyrie explained. 'I needed something different, so I decided to leave my job and wrap everything up.' So, in July 2023, she set off on a 357-mile journey from London to Leeds, which took seven weeks, travelling through Oxford, Coventry, Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent and Lancashire. She planned to settle in Leeds for a few months and make progress with her music and freelance writing. But when she arrived, in September 2023, her engine blew up, and she had to stay moored in a marina while searching for a 'reliable engineer'. After finally finding an engineer, her boat was towed to a boatyard in Goole in October 2024. Both she and her boat have remained in Goole since while repairs are carried out, including the installation of a new engine, a new propeller, and work on the bottom of the boat. In January 2025, the boat even caught fire after she accidentally knocked over a candle, which made her curtain go up in flames. 'Within 30 seconds, the whole side of my boat was on fire,' Kyrie added. 'I got the dog off and… I used the first extinguisher, the whole wall was engulfed at this stage. 'I thought, 'This is it'. 'I got the second fire extinguisher, then that ran out, and…I just thought, 'I can't give up'. 'I got one last extinguisher, and then I started throwing buckets of canal water over it, and I managed to get it out.' A passerby called 999, but by the time the fire service arrived, the blaze was already out. A third of the boat was damaged – the ceiling needed replacing, and all the woodwork and paint had to be redone. Fortunately, the fire did not hit the electricity, and she did not lose anything valuable. She said: 'I came out thanking my lucky stars… it messed me up for a little while – when I saw the flames on my stove, my heart started to go. 'I think it must be some kind of PTSD but over time, that's worn away, and I'm alright again now, but I've just got a new mentality about candles. 'I just don't bother with them and if I go to someone's house and they have candles, I'll secretly blow them all out.' Since owning the boat, she has spent about £12,000 on renovations. She has been documenting her progress on TikTok, under the handle @canalboatkiz, since March 2024. 'I was in a bad place at the time – it was around the time my engine broke and I was grieving and I was just stagnant,' Kyrie explained. 'So I started posting to get me to reach my goals with storytelling and using my skills and give me an audience.' She now has 19,500 followers, with a video about her journey to Leeds receiving more than one million views. Looking ahead, Kyrie plans to continue living on the boat and exploring the UK for the foreseeable future.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- The Guardian
A slow boat to happiness: our family holiday on Wiltshire's Kennet and Avon canal
I'm on the towpath of the Kennet and Avon canal, a loaf of freshly baked sourdough bread in one hand and a bag of pungently oozing local cheese in the other. As I turn the corner near Trowbridge in Wiltshire, I brace myself. Ahead is our hired-for-the-week narrowboat, and I'm fully expecting to find my four gen Z children (aged 18 to 24) and my doomscrolling husband either bickering or welded to their screens. To my surprise, they are all reading books. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. We've stopped taking family holidays in exotic, or even Mediterranean, locations. Too hot. Too busy. Too flight-shaming. But when I announced this year's jaunt – a week on the mid-section of the Reading-to-Bristol canal – eyes rolled in horror. As the departure date loomed, I panicked. How would we survive in such a minuscule space? What if the lack of activities drove us to spend even longer on our phones? After a two-hour drive from London, having stopped to view the Avebury stone circles, and then the world-famous flight of locks at Caen Hill, we arrived at Devizes in Wiltshire – and our extremely narrow boat from Foxhangers. Eyes rolled (again) as we realised that two of us would have to sleep in the kitchen: our frighteningly long, skinny boat had two bedrooms with foldaway double beds, and a galley kitchen where two single beds could be cleverly folded into a rudimentary dining table. Thankfully, there were two (very bijou) bathrooms. 'You can go home if you want,' I sighed, fully expecting a hurried exit to the train station. Three hours later (after a quick 'driving' lesson from the man at Foxhangers), having grappled with locks, swing bridges and steering 21 metres (70ft) of boat, all six of us squeezed on deck with a bottle of local rosé. The sun dropped over the horizon in a blaze of pink and tangerine, the green-gold hills rolled into the distance, swans drifted past, tiny fish jumped, a heron landed on the roof of our boat – and the world fell away. That night we slept like the dead. Over the next few days, the world fell further and further away. We puttered along at three miles an hour, stopping to take walks beside the River Avon, or to explore the astonishing Dundas and Avoncliff aqueducts. At nightfall, we ambled the towpath, crossing ancient bridges and venturing up overgrown footpaths into the Bath valley, or chatting to other moored boaters. Narrowboat residents are famously friendly. We regularly fell into conversation with our neighbours, many of whom lived permanently on the canal and would spend their evenings cooking over a campfire, tending their rooftop gardens, or lovingly repairing their boats. This, we decided, made for more interesting 'viewing' than any TV show. Our first mooring was at Hilperton, where we discovered Wiltshire's answer to London's legendary Petersham Nurseries restaurant in Richmond, but at a fraction of the price. Avonfield Kitchen, situated in a garden centre, makes delicious and extravagant brunches and cakes, including the best chilli eggs we've tasted. At Bradford-on-Avon, we explored the 11th-century Saxon Church of St Laurence (apparently one of the UK's most important Saxon buildings), the beguiling 15th-century Chapel of St Mary Tory (a one-time hermitage for weary pilgrims), the Tithe barn (one of the UK's largest medieval barns) and the local museum, which features the original interior of a Victorian pharmacy. All were free to enter. We also stocked up with books at Ex Libris (whose barn boasts 6,000 second-hand books) and browsed the boutiques and craft shops along The Shambles, a series of old pedestrian shopping streets in the heart of Bradford-on-Avon. Best of all, we discovered our all-time favourite bakery, Pipit, where we returned repeatedly to buy almond croissants and the house sourdough loaf – which we paired with goodies from the tiny but perfect Cheese Shop. We then chugged to Avoncliff, where we encountered kingfishers, an ancient water wheel pumping station, and an unbeatable menu at the No 10 Tea Garden, which we left with copious boxes of assorted cakes. By this point, each of us had had a go at steering. It wasn't as easy as it looked: one daughter managed to clip another boat, while I inadvertently stranded the barge across the entire width of the canal, where it wedged itself into the bank and had to be rescued by a team of Duke of Edinburgh's-award rowers (average age: 14). Happily, The Husband loved steering and did it effortlessly. Our final mooring before turning back was Sydney Gardens on the outskirts of Bath. Here, we hired bikes and cycled the disused railway track that runs from Bath to Bristol. Later, we visited exhibitions at The Holburne Museum and the Victoria Art Gallery, ate the juiciest imaginable sandwiches at Green Street butchers and munched on flavoursome cinnamon and cardamom buns at Landrace bakery. For our night in Bath, we escaped the crowds by heading uphill to the Saint James Wine Vaults for a pub quiz. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion My worries about excessive screen time proved unfounded. Canals, I learned, often have poor reception, so our phones rarely worked. A word of advice: if you're after a digital detox, choose a signal-poor waterway (according to the Canal & River Trust, more rural and hilly areas are less likely to have good coverage, with the Llangollen, Trent and Mersey, and the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire union canal being markedly patchy). When we did get a signal, our phones felt too bright, too fast, too demanding, too modern. Instead, we read, tried to steer, fed the ducks, watched the beady-eyed antics of our resident heron, chatted to passersby, and played games – all from our tiny deck. A narrowboat holiday usually means returning along the same stretch of water. Normally, this would have elicited groans of horror and boredom. It didn't. Instead, books were swapped and plans made to revisit our favourite spots. 'You're not missing your phones?' I asked, baffled. 'No,' said my daughter Bryony, who is usually welded to her iPhone. 'Weirdly, being on a narrowboat seems to have given me permission to switch off in every way.' 'Scrolling is for when you're on your own,' added my daughter, Imogen. 'But this boat's so small, we're never, ever alone.' And then my son Hugo (who had just read an unprecedented two novels), chipped in: 'Anyway, you can't use your phone if there's no signal.' Here's what I think: the gentle, soothing monotony of a canal had taken away all desire to show and share on social media. Its calm tranquillity had slowed our minds to such an extent we no longer wanted the digital glare of modern life, and we certainly didn't want our gloriously languid days broken by a litany of horrible headlines. All of which is to say, a canal holiday may well be the perfect and most painless of digital detoxes. When we compared statistics at the end of the week, our phones showed an average 70% drop in usage. Embarrassingly, mine was the highest. Foxhangers has a range of boats sleeping 2-9, available for short and weekly breaks. Prices range from £610 for a four-night break on a boat that sleeps 2-4 people, to £2,458 for a week on a boat that sleeps 6-9 people in August
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Daily Mail
I love living on my canal boat... but it can be so hard I've burst into tears
A 27-year-old firefighter opted to purchase and renovate a 49ft formerly sunken narrowboat for £15,000 instead of contending with the 'mad' housing market. El Sutcliffe, based in Burton-on-Trent, East Staffordshire, bought her first house with her former partner in Birmingham in 2022 – but after their relationship broke down and they sold the property, she found herself with £15,000 to work with. Faced with the prospect of buying a one-bedroom flat in a 'rough part' of the area, El decided instead to purchase a narrowboat for £15,750 in May 2024. The entire boat, which had a living space of less than 20 square metres, needed gutting as it had sunk previously, and there was 'no flooring'. Despite the scale of work required, for which El budgeted £10,000 solely for the interior, she has spent the best part of a year kitting out the space, fitting a log burner and a fully-functioning kitchen with a fridge, a sink and a gas cooker, and just the bathroom and a few finishing touches are left to complete. She admitted the renovations has 'not been all sunshine and roses' and that she has 'stormed off crying' and asking herself 'is this a terrible idea?'. However, she said that 'now it's nearly done, I love it' and that she 'can't see myself getting rid of it'. El has been sharing her renovation journey on TikTok to highlight the reality of living on a narrowboat – she said she would be 'heartbroken' to move on from the home she has created, but feels videos showing 'gorgeous boats going through stunning parts of the British countryside' do not show the whole picture. 'It just seemed like a no-brainer and I don't have any regrets, I think the housing market is all a bit mad,' El, who works as a full-time firefighter, told PA Real Life. 'I could never afford to live where I do if I didn't live on a boat. 'Things can change and your work can move – with a house, that's a lot of paperwork and a lot of stress. 'With the boat, I can up and move it, and I can access a lot of the waterways here in the UK, it can come with me wherever I end up.' El purchased her first house in Birmingham in 2022 with her former partner, but after the relationship broke down, they made the decision to sell the property. 'I came out of that with about £15,000 and I was looking at what I could afford,' she said. 'I could have got a one-bed flat in quite a rough part of Birmingham where I would have had to pay ground rent, maintenance fees and things like that. 'I'd always liked the idea of living on the boat but I was running out of time, I needed to figure something out.' El said one of her work colleagues mentioned she knew someone selling a narrowboat, but it came with a warning as it would need a lot of work. 'It had no flooring, it had sunk previously, it was all very questionable – but I thought 'what have I got to lose?'' El purchased her 49ft narrowboat for £15,750 in May 2024, which she said was a lot less than the average price due to its condition. She set herself a budget of £10,000 to put towards the interior renovations, which she takes from her wages every month, and got to work fixing up her new home. With the help of her parents, Helen and Haydn, 58 and 61 respectively, El has now installed a log burner with a chimney, a fully-functioning kitchen with a gas cooker, a fridge and a sink, and she has put up walls to section off the area to create a bedroom. 'Everything had to come out, we had to take it back to bare metal, rust-treat it all, it had to be fully insulated, we put in new ceilings, new flooring,' she said. To complete the interior, El now needs to install another wall to create a section for the bathroom, which will include a toilet, a shower and a sink, as well as finishing the painting and the decorating. For the exterior, she estimates the existing paintwork will need to be removed entirely but as she has been quoted £12,500 to have it done professionally, it is another job she will be taking on herself. 'I can't see myself getting rid of it – it would absolutely break my heart because we've built it from the ground up,' she said. 'It's not been all sunshine and roses, I've banged my head against walls, I've stormed off crying and sat in my car going 'is this a terrible idea?' 'But now it's nearly done, I love it.' At present, El estimates it will cost her around £550 a month to moor and maintain the boat once the renovations are complete – although this will not include any costly repair jobs. 'They require maintenance work which can be expensive, like taking them out of the water and blackening the hull to protect it, repainting, getting the engine serviced, things like that,' she said. Despite the low living costs, El said living on a narrowboat can be a mixed bag. 'I'm moored in a stunning spot, I've got amazing neighbours and the boating community is fantastic,' she said. 'There are some parts which are hard, it's such a small living space, it works out less than 20 square metres, so the storage is a nightmare. 'I had to get rid of a lot of clothes but I seem to have settled into it really well.' El has been sharing her renovation journey on TikTok with the aim of highlighting the realistic process of living on a narrowboat. 'People will comment 'oh my god, this is my dream lifestyle' and TikTok videos will show gorgeous boats going through stunning parts of the British countryside,' she said. 'It's like that about 10% of the time and I think that needs to be spoken about more.
The Sun
07-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Sun
I ditched my flat & broke up with ex to live in 49ft narrowboat – I save £100s on rent..but there's HUGE downside
A FULL-TIME firefighter ditched her flat — and her ex — to live on a 49ft narrowboat, saving £100s on rent… but faces a huge downside. El Sutcliffe, 27, from Burton-on-Trent, East Staffordshire, took the plunge into boat life in May 2024 after selling the Birmingham home she shared with her ex-partner. 6 6 6 With just £15,000 to spend, she chose not to buy a one-bedroom flat in a rougher part of town. Instead, she snapped up a narrowboat – even though it had previously sunk and came without basic flooring – for £15,750. Speaking to PA Real Life, El said: 'It just seemed like a no-brainer. I don't have any regrets – I think the housing market is all a bit mad.' El has since spent the last year renovating the boat with help from her parents, transforming it from a rusting shell into a cosy floating home. So far, she's installed a log burner, fitted a full kitchen with a gas cooker, sink and fridge, and carved out a bedroom and living area. The bathroom is nearly finished, and once the inside is complete, she plans to repaint the exterior herself to avoid a hefty £12,500 professional fee. 'I can't see myself getting rid of it – it would absolutely break my heart because we've built it from the ground up,' she said. 'It's not been all sunshine and roses. "I've cried, I've stormed off, I've sat in my car wondering if this was a terrible idea. "But now it's nearly done, I love it.' Despite the savings, boat life isn't all smooth sailing. El says she spends around £550 a month on mooring and general upkeep, and that doesn't include surprise repair bills. From servicing the engine to repainting the hull and dealing with maintenance below deck, the costs can quickly add up. 'There are parts that are hard,' El admitted. 'It's such a small living space – less than 20 square metres – so storage is a nightmare. "I had to get rid of a lot of clothes but I've settled into it really well.' The narrowboat lifestyle has forced El to rethink what she really needs. She's pared back her wardrobe and belongings and now lives much more simply. 'I've realised how little stuff you actually need,' she said. 'It's quite freeing, actually.' She's also using TikTok to show what real life on a narrowboat looks like, beyond the romanticised views often seen online. 'People say, 'This is my dream lifestyle,' but those beautiful boat scenes you see – that's only about 10 per cent of the reality. "I think that needs to be spoken about more.' El often posts updates about the renovation process, showing both the triumphs and the setbacks. Her videos have attracted thousands of views, and she's found an online community that's both supportive and curious. 'It's been lovely to connect with other boaters and people who are interested in alternative living,' she said. Living on the water has brought unexpected upsides too. 'I'm moored in a stunning spot, I've got amazing neighbours, and the boating community is fantastic,' she said. The sense of community and freedom to move around are things she says she'd never find in a typical home. El also enjoys the flexibility of being able to relocate easily. 'If work changes or I want a new adventure, I can just untie the ropes and go,' she explained. 'That's a freedom you don't get with a house.' But she's realistic about the work involved. 'It's not for everyone,' El warned. 'You have to be ready to get your hands dirty. There's always something that needs fixing or checking.' El hopes her experience helps others make informed choices. 'Especially now, when people are looking for cheaper ways of living and it's becoming more popular, they need to know the full picture.' 6 6 6
