BEACON Park Boats’ luxury hire narrowboats will leave Llanfoist Wharf for the final time before the narrowboat holiday company relocates to a new, larger wharf six miles upstream at Llangattock. Customers who have booked these last holidays starting from Llanfoist Wharf will receive from Beacon Park Boats’ proprietors, Alasdair and Sarah Kirkpatrick, a copy of their limited edition book 200 years of The Monmouthshire and the Brecknock & Abergavenny Canals, containing some 40 illustrations by the late artist Michael Blackmore.

Llanfoist Wharf dates back to the early 1800s and features in Alexander Cordell’s bestseller, Rape of the Fair Country. It was built to transfer pig iron from the tramroad, which came down the side of the Blorenge mountain, to the canal, and then across the world via the port of Newport.By the 1860s barges gave way to trains, and the last cargo was carried in 1915. Luckily, the canal remained in water and, in 1962, the Tod family started hiring boats from the wharf for holidays on the canal.

Alasdair and Sarah Kirkpatrick took over at the helm of Beacon Park Boats in 2001, and, as their 5-star canal holiday business grew, they began searching for a larger base. After identifying a suitable site in Llangattock and gaining planning permission, the project began in earnest in August 2015. Local companies, including civil engineers Alun Griffiths Ltd and steel building fabricator Meyrick & Powell, have worked on the project, which is nearing completion.

Once these final holidays end, the entire fleet of thirteen boats will begin their period of winter maintenance at the new wharf in Llangattock. On March 18 2016 there will be an official opening ceremony at the new wharf, after which the first customers will cast off and cruise away on their holidays.