About us

Bygone Boating is a fairly new company to the boating holiday industry, having just finished our 6th season!!

We are still relatively small, and will never be too big to not give a personal service. We will be adding new craft as they get restored, to grow the ‘fleet’. See ‘Our Boats’.

Personal Friendly Individual

Did you know?

On average there is one dead body hauled out of the Thames each week. Perhaps this is due to the POLAR BEAR in the Thames. In 1252 King Henry III received a bear as a gift from Norway. He kept it in the Tower of London and used to let it swim in the river to catch fish. Maybe the bear has ancestors… I feel we are spreading a Loch Ness Monster scale rumour here!

Our philosophy:

  • To always go that extra mile.
  • Treat our guests' holiday, as if it were our own.
  • Fit our boats out to be as comfortable and as functional as possible

Please note that our season (and most hire boat businesses on the Thames) runs from April to October. The last few Octobers have been very wet, and the Thames has been in flood. This makes the river dangerous for boats, therefore we have made the decision to close  after the first week of October for the foreseeable future – sorry!

 

We always welcome your feedback, Facebook best option, or email us.

 

We love wooden boats. We love our wooden boats and we hope you do too! Although our Freeman does have a fibre glass hull, she still has lots of wood!

 

We do all the work on them ourselves – although, admittedly, Jeff definitely does the bulk of the work – but I help as much as I can.

 

We have added boats, one that was well travelled in, by us, but is now a fully fledged hire boat – Ruby- renamed Rubette, to fit in with our other boat names. Last year we added Henriette – aka Moorhen. A beautiful little boat, built in 1948, by Moore & Sons in the Norfolk Broads. A real favourite already! So what for next year….? Watch this space..

Further updates soon…….

Sue 🙂

 

Bygone Boating - Self drive boating holidays on the River Thames

We are the only holiday hire company on the upper Thames with a fleet of classic wooden motor cruisers. We have a Bates Star Craft, known for it’s style and innovation in the Industry, built in 1952, also a broads cruiser, built in 1965, a Moore & Sons 22ft cruiser, bulit in 1948, and a 28ft cruiser- totally refurbished – quite possibly from Dunkirk times!

Please note – we do require there to be at least one capable person on board,who has previous boating experience.

We hope you enjoy looking at our website! Please give us a ring, or drop us an email, if you have any questions at all – be great to hear from you.

Happy Boating Holidays!

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