Ellerbeck Narrowboats was established in March 2005. Owned and run by Lucien Burkhardt and Adam Pope. Adam is a long term served engineer in all types of diesel and gas powered engines whereas Lucien has an administration background, so Adam concentrates on carrying out the work and Lucien concentrates on running the business. Adam and Lucien started P B Mechanical Services from a larger than normal garden shed from their then home in Swinton, Manchester. Lucien left his job as an Insurance Underwriter and Adam left his as a Service Engineer to set up the business in January 2002.

Initially the business was set up to trade as Corgi registered domestic and commercial gas engineers. It wasn’t until one day when Adam and Lucien were out fitting one of their re-manufactured BMC engines that the customer showed them a copy of Waterways World magazine with an advert that L&L Cruisers Ltd in Chorley was up for sale. They decided to give the sale agents a call to arrange to have a look as it was only 20 miles from Swinton so keeping all of their existing customers was possible. They met the previous owners, explained their predicament, and the previous owners offered them a deal to rent the workshop for six months, decide if they liked it and then buy the workshop, the rest of the business.
This was a fantastic offer, one they could not refuse to investigate. They moved into the workshop in October 2003 and agreed to purchase the workshop after the six month rental period. So in April 2004 Adam and Lucien owned a canal side workshop. One of there customers was a couple from New Zealand who purchased a boat to live on in England. The boat needed quite a lot of mechanical repair work, in turn Lucien and Adam became good friends with the owners of narrowboat “Aroha”.

In March 2005 the owners of “Aroha” decided to move off the boat to live in Scotland and offered Adam and Lucien the opportunity to use “Aroha” as a weekly hire boat. As L&L Cruisers Ltd was one time a big narrowboat hire company this seemed a good idea. This lead to the creation of Ellerbeck Narrowboats.

The weekly hire boat business went well, with lots of happy customers, but complications arose when “Aroha”‘s owners decided that they needed to sell her. With the purchase of the rest of L&L Cruisers Ltd looming, which included the day boat hire business, Adam and Lucien couldn’t afford to buy “Aroha” and provide the necessary deposit for the next stage of buying the boatyard. It was decided the the weekly hire business would no longer be in operation from January 2008. It was an amicable decision and Adam and Lucien are still good friends with them today. In April 2008, Ellerbeck Narrowboats daily and evening hire began operation. Today you can enjoy a day on the canal with your friends, family or work colleages. Ideal for family days out, friends, reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, work outings, etc.

Ellerbeck Narrowboats are available to hire during the day or for the evening. They are easy to handle, so no previous experience is necessary. Ellerbeck pride themselves on our training and are RYA Inland Waters Helmsman certified. When you arrive we will conduct a safety brief, demonstrate how the boats works, offer everyone in the group bouyancy aids and will offer to come out with you to show you how to steer the boat, turn it around, moor up, tie up and explain the rules of the waterways. We are in the middle of a 12 mile stretch of canal between locks as the boats are not permitted to travel through the locks. A detailed explanation of how to hire a boat from the initial enquiry to the time you get home from your day out can be found by visiting www.boatstohire.co.uk/boat-hire

Age, rarity, condition and provenance – the four pillars of finding and acquiring antiques. I’ve found visiting historic houses that remain in private ownership to be an enjoyable and educational way of fine-tuning my antiquing skills. These houses represent the organic growth of a family residence over time, where each succeeding generation added things they found beautiful and useful. I’ve chosen three of my favourite houses in North Wales. They have an interesting story and reflect the owner’s tastes and interests. Go, visit, enjoy a day out. Find out how each owner chose the things for their home – the beauties of their time and the antiques of today. And, when you are in the neighbourhood, give us a call to make sure we are in and drop by the Banquet House in Rhuddlan. We would love to meet you, offer you a cup of tea, and talk about collecting and living with antiques.

Bodrhyddan Hall
The present building was remodelled in the 1690s. The original house was obtained from King Henry VIII at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries when the abbot and his flock relocated to another site at Hendre Farm nearby. The house is known for its collection of armour and militaria; however, the 9th Lord Langford, who died in 2017 at the age of 105, collected ceramics and added many pieces of tourist souvenir ceramics from places he visited. Those tourist pieces are displayed alongside Minton, Royal Doulton and Wedgwood pieces of great value.

Plas Newydd (Llangollan)
Plas Newydd is in the town of Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales, and was the home of the Ladies of Llangollen, Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, for nearly 50 years. Their story is most romantic and the house reflects their collecting interests. The most unusual feature is the panelling made of pieces of reclaimed oak carvings collected by the ladies and set in a patchwork style over much of the interior of the house. The carvings came from broken-up furniture and church fittings, ranging from medieval to Baroque, dominated a vernacular folk and Jacobean styles.

Gwydr Castle
During the 16th and 17th centuries the Gwydir Estate belonged to the Wynn family. The Wynn’s were closely associated with the courts of Charles I and Charles II. In the early 20th century, the castle and its contents were sold and key components of the interior were purchased by William Randolph Hearst and taken to storage in warehouses in New York City. The castle is now privately owned by Peter Welford and his wife, Judy Corbett. They purchased the castle in 1994. They then began a programme of conservation with authenticity as the main consideration. Part of that programme was identifying, locating, and acquiring pieces that had been sold. A key find was the contents of the dining room.

With the assistance and support of Prince Charles, the dining room was acquired from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, to which it had been donated by Mr. Hearst. The restoration continues, funded primarily by the current owners according to their philosophy. “Ancient houses like Gwydir are the sum of their parts, historical as well as architectural. But in addition, they evolve a particular frequency, over the centuries, which is specific to nowhere else. Gwydir has its own time, its own smell, its dense and layered atmosphere, which amounts to the metaphysical equivalent of its archaeology; this represents, in short, the soul of the house.”