Every now and then we ask for willing volunteers to move our narrowboat’s for us from one base to another, generally  before the start of the season. Nicholas and his team certainly had his work cut out for him on his journey up to Napton with ‘Princess’ Leah this March.  Normally at this time of year the worst you can expect would be a bit of rain, but this eventful journey was filled with ice, snow, trees down and bridges iced shut!   But the intrepid team made it and delivered the boat ...

Two brand new Black Prince Narrowboats (‘Yasmin’ and ‘Sarah’) will be chugging their way up to their Scottish base in Falkirk shortly to be ready for the 2013 season starting in March.  At the same time, individual steel sections for two huge equine sculptures set to transform the Falkirk skyline are arriving at a local depot. Known as The Kelpies, this pair of 300 tonne steel-plated horse’s heads will become a centrepiece of the Helix, a major land transformation project between Falkirk and Grangemouth currently under construction. The huge structures, standing 30 metres tall, will be assembled on the Helix site ...

The winner of our "Recommend a Friend" prize draw competition is a Mr Bramley from Winchester. Congratulations go to him and we hope he has a lovely time on his free 1 week canal boat holiday. His comment was "what a wonderful surprise, I've never won anything in my life before".

The One Show team took a trip down the Trent & Mersey Canal to check on works following a breach.   The breach occurred in September 2012 at Dutton Hollow near Preston Brook, following a (long!)  period of heavy rain. The repair is expected to be completed by spring. Anyone that wants to keep up to date with the latest breach repair news as it happens,  the Canal and River Trust have started a diary of the restoration works. Check here for latest updates: http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/features/diary-of-a-breach.

Get a fascinating insight into the canal winter stoppage programme with C&RT's video. This is made up of the jobs C&RT can only carry out by closing the canal (hence the name 'stoppages') and include replacing lock gates, relining channels, repairing weirs and grouting the lock walls. Every year they hold a number of open days and invite the public to come and see what they're up to. Open days at the lock-making workshops, which produce around 180-200 lock gates to be fitted during our winter works are always popular. Other past open days have seen thousands of people (in single file) ...

The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct caught the imagination of our Facebook followers recently – there’s a fair few of you who have braved the heights and admired the views from this impressively high structure. Want to know more about it?  Here are the facts! The aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wrexham County Borough in north east Wales. Completed in 1805, it is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building ...

Welcome to the Black Prince blog. We’ll be bringing you news and chat from the waterways and we look forward to receiving your thoughts and comments. Anyone interested in doing a daily blog from your canal boat travels? We would love to feature guest bloggers, recounting your trips on the waterways, so if you are interested get in contact with jo@black-prince.com and we’ll make it happen! So, what is there to talk about during the winter season on the canals? Our first blog brings you news from the Canal & River Trust. Each year they hold a number of open days ...