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Venetian Marina Village

There is no description of this marina available on the company web site. If you own or manage Venetian Marina Village, please contact me regarding your marina details

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Upton Marina

On the mighty River Severn, Britain’s longest river, lies Upton Marina, south of historic Worcester and north of Tewkesbury, Upton Marina offers secure pontoon and bankside moorings for all types of craft with hardstanding storage space and visitor berths, where you may take advantage of all the modern facilities you would expect from a large, well equipped, modern marina. It is also home to a fleet of holiday hire boats.

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Cruising on the Severn offers a variety of itineraries since it stretches 58 miles from Sharpness to Stourport and forms part of the Avon Ring linking the Worcester and Birmingham, Staffs and Worcs canals.

It is possible to reach Stratford-upon-Avon and moor up opposite the Shakespeare Theatre. In fact there is hardly anywhere in the country that cannot be reached from Upton upon Severn by inland waterways. For more adventurous cruising southwards, it is a day’s run to the Bristol Channel and open waters.

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Upton Marina Review

Written by Jim Shead: First published in Waterways World September 2005

Upton upon Severn is situated on the river between Worcester and Tewksbury and therefore the stretch of river on which it stands forms part of the Avon Ring connecting the Worcester & Birmingham Canal to the river Avon. Just below Upton Bridge and opposite the attractive old town is Upton Marina.

It was developed in 1974 from a site that was known as the Brick Holes which had been used for clay extraction more than a century ago and had since that time been a pond. The marina had several previous owners and in 1988 was bought by the present owners Walton Marine. This is a private family owned company whose Managing Director is Mike Cook. They also own Walton Marina on the Thames and two other inland marinas.

The Marina Manager is Steve Arber CMM. Steve first worked in a marina as a holiday job while he was at university. He was attracted by the work and after he left university he went to work for a marina at Windsor on the Thames and to run the servicing and chandlery. After a few years he then went to work for Walton Marina and came to Upton as manager in the early 1990s. His interest in marina management led him to take a course that resulted in his CMM professional qualification.

Yacht Harbours Association has awarded the marina four gold anchors for the range and quality of its facilities. They have a licensed bar, restaurant, service and repair for both cruisers and narrowboats, chandlery, boatbuilding, slipway, 18 ton hoist, hard standing, electricity and water to all pontoons, telephone, broadband and satellite TV connections if required, diesel and pumpout as well as boat sales. The only facilities they don’t have are petrol and a launderette. However, there is a launderette close by in Upton.

Many of the marina facilities are run by tenants including the chandlery and cruiser servicing. Other businesses here are Starline Marine, who do narrowboat building repair and engineering, and Starline Narrowboats who are a hire boat company based in the marina.

The fact that the marina is on the River Severn means that it can be used as a base for canal, river and seagoing craft. They have 300 moorings at present used by a variety of boats from small river cruisers up to fifty foot seagoing boats as well as narrowboats of all sizes. The mooring rate is per metre but is capped at 12 metres so that longer boats only pay the 12 metre charge.

The marina is now full but planning permission has been obtained to double the water area of the site and to develop an adjacent holiday village. The present market trend is for large cruisers and narrowboats so that though the length of total mooring space will be doubled the greater proportion of these longer boats means that the total number of moored boats is unlikely to double. They are hoping to start work on the development this year.

The marina is flood protected by its system of floating pontoons that are kept in place by pile guides as the Severn can rise by as much as twenty feet. To counter the extra strain this places on the pile guides there is a system of sixteen anchor points in the ground around the marina that are used to secure a series of wires that go out to the pontoons from these deeply driven anchor piles. The whole system is designed to make this a safe haven on a river renowned for its floods. Looking at the well kept grass banks on a warm June day, and boats making leisurely progress over the gentle waters, it was difficult to imagine the huge rises in water levels that can sometimes occur.

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Trinity Marina

Trinity Marinas is a well established narrowboat marina situated on the Ashby Canal in Leicestershire. Its Heart of England location, served also by a superb motorway network, makes it extremely accessible from all areas of the country.

Trinity Marinas is a large and well laid out marina with 114 moorings for narrowboats from 40ft to 70ft on sophisticated pontoons. With its modern facilities it can offer services second to none.

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Trinity Marina Review

Written by Jim Shead: First published in Waterways World January 2005

Trinity Marina is situated on the Ashby Canal giving access to over 38 miles of lock-free cruising, or more than 53 miles if we discount the stop lock at Hawkesbury. This fairly new marina was the dream of Bob Woodward, the owner of Trinity Motors and of the adjoining canalside land. He and his daughter Sharon Woodward planned and built the marina which was completed in 2001. It is Sharon and her partner Christine Dallas who run the marina business.

Christine has been a boater since her early twenties. Her first boat was a Shetland cruiser and this was followed by a wooden canal cruiser before she acquired a 50 foot ex-Weltonfield hire boat called Buttercup which she kept on the Ashby Canal for 4? years. She joined the company six months after the marina opened with a background in retail, commercial and marketing work which together with her boating interests made her a prime candidate for being partner to Sharon Woodward.

Christine’s first job was to fill the 120 berths in the marina with narrowboats, which happened quite quickly and they now have a 200 boat waiting list for moorings. After the moorings were full they started a second hand boat brokerage service and have sold about 130 boats in the 18 months it has been operating. The moorings all have electricity and water and there is a launderette, modern shower room and toilets on site as well as a shop and small chandlery.

Although they have no engineer on site they are close to Willow Park Marina that has these facilities and are in an area well served by marine engineers. In addition to the usual boatyard services such as diesel and pump out they are also the first marina to offer broadband internet connection – from ukcanal.com – which gives a radio link in the areas of the site that is available to subscribers to the service.

The development includes an a la carte restaurant and bar. They must have been impressed by the architect who designed their Watergate Restaurant as they are now using him to design the interiors of their range of new boats. The boats will be built using Graham Reeves shells and the fitting out is to be done by Ian Cooper at Aynho Wharf.

There are three different styles that people can choose from: Scandinavian range which will be open plan with wood finishes; Contemporary Chic range that is a modern design; and New England range which is more traditional. Having someone from outside the boat building business doing the interior design has produced some new ideas including, on two of the ranges, central island kitchens which are very unusual on boats.

At the time I spoke to Christine these plans were still in the design and concept build stage. They plan to produce 3 lengths in each of the ranges – 47, 57 and 67 foot. They will be standard boats with some customer choice within each style and will be available in Cruiser, Semi Trad and Traditional backs with a choice of three external paint colours. They were then making the final costings and aimed to start selling these boats in 2005. I was shown the plans of the nine different layouts – 3 lengths each in three styles.

For those requiring something less expensive than a new boat the brokerage service is there to provide cheaper options as Sharon and Christine “want Trinity to be something for everybody”. If you are looking for advice they have produced leaflets such as Are you Buying Your First Boat which set out the average running costs. This is a marina that boasts all the modern facilities and a community spirit.

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Thrupp Wharf Marina

Thrupp Wharf Marina is a friendly family run marina situated on the Grand Union Canal, adjacent to the Navigation Inn. It is conveniently located in South Northamptonshire near to the village of Cosgrove, just north of Milton Keynes.

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At Thrupp Wharf Marina we provide 60 secure private moorings in a peaceful country setting. With easy access from major routes and close proximity to local pubs, restaurants and shops the marina provides the perfect base for cruising the canal network.

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