NARROW INTERIOR OF ALL NARROWBOATS:
OK, so let us detail some of our possible concerns when dealing with potential overseas and, in particular, US guests.  Please do not be offended by our frankness, but we are honest people who believe that before spending considerable sums of money on a UK visit you need to know a little bit about narrowboats and our 'industry'.

In England we have quite a network of narrow (and some wider) canals built in the late 1700s and early to mid 1800s.  It was the transport system that helped the industrial revolution come about.  By the standards of those days, the network cost a fortune to build and one way of keeping building costs down was to limit and standardise the width of bridges over the canal, and similarly limit the width and length of the lock chambers.  The narrow standard (majority of canals) became 7ft wide with locks limited to 72ft in length (a few canals limited locks to 62ft or 58ft in length). 

In modern day times virtually all commercial goods carrying on the canals has ceased mainly due to the size limitations of narrowboats (and therefore their carrying capacity).  The 'silver lining' to that 'cloud' is that our narrow canals are now almost exclusively used for pleasure.  They tend, by their very narrowness, to be prettier, more quaint, more intimate in nature (particularly the older 'contour canals'). We personally favour the narrowbeam canals for those very reasons. 

The inherent narrowness does limit possible accommodation on narrowboats.  Willow is actually just over 70ft long, fender to fender, and 6'10" wide - allowing an inch either side to fit into the narrowest locks.  There are longer hotel narrowboats but none exceed 72ft (they certainly wouldn't fit into the narrow canal system locks) - some of our competitor's boats are actually shorter than 62ft to enable them to cruise the admittedly pretty trans-pennine routes (but we are too long for those locks).  There are certainly no narrowboats that are wider by more than 2ins (that would be too wide for those narrow locks). Take a look at the top right marginal photo - not much room for anything more in that lock.  Without a narrowboat you won't be able to explore the majority of the canal system (narrow canals) by boat.  It is a bit like suggesting that you can explore narrow mountain trails or paths using an 'RV' or 'motor caravan' - you can't, so you use a horse.  There are wider boats, but they are restricted to wide canals and rivers - of course there is nothing to stop us cruising wide beam canals and rivers in a narrowboat (we readily cruise parts of the Rivers Weaver, Avon, Thames and Severn).

Some Hotel narrowboats operate as two boats working together (motor boat and unpowered butty), with accommodation for up to 8 guests plus 3 or 4 crew.  This means that there has to be enough bedrooms for up to 12 people - an average of 6 people per boat. With such a vessel guest cabins are by necessity small, just to fit everyone in, perhaps with 24ins wide single bunks - and with few of the cabins being fully en-suite.  

So we class our accommodation as being spacious by narrowboat standards - BUT ACCOMMODATION IS NEVERTHELESS SMALL BY THE STANDARDS OF ON-LAND HOTEL ROOMS.  Our guest double bed (some hotel narrowboats provide twin 18" beds) is a narrowboat standard width of 4ft (to allow for space to pass by the bed in an approx 6ft wide cabin) - whereas a standard UK double bed is 4ft 6ins. One US client, on his own, has told us that 4ft width is the standard single bed width in the US - other US clients have told us that's 'baloney' (their words) - but clients do need to be aware of these things before coming.  The en-suite shower room is spacious by other hotel narrowboat standards but, again, undoubtedly small by on-land hotel room standards. 

We are honest people and we wish to make it very clear that we are offering a narrowboat holiday.  Willow is a quality hotel narrowboat with it's leather armchair seating, 'parquet' solid hardwood flooring, unique all weather bow/observation cabin - and we personally love it. We have had 'larger' people on board who have had no problems with our narrowboat accommodation, but if you are 'on the large side' you may wish to pause and consider the accommodation before booking - you are welcome to discuss these issues before committing to such a booking. But do remember that without a narrowboat we cannot properly explore the intimate and attractive nature of the narrow canals.