Canal's the life for Phil, the Tiverton 'Barge Man'

The Tiverton Canal Co is open for the season and LEWIS CLARKE caught up with owner Phil Brind to find out what it is like running the award-winning family attraction

- LEWIS CLARKE

WORKING with heavy horses on a beautiful canal in Devon was never part of Phil Brind’s plan, but after four decades on the water he wouldn't consider ever doing anything else.

“I was racing around at 70 miles an hour, stressed and always against the clock,’ says Phil, as he casts his mind back to life before the canal. He worked as a sales engineer for a printed circuit board manufacturer and lived in the Reading area.

“Then I came down here for a holiday - and suddenly I was cruising at two and a half miles an hour, chilled out and surrounded by beauty.”

That moment, back in 1986, changed everything. A week spent along the Grand Western Canal, among the clip-clopping hooves and peaceful waters of Mid Devon, was all it took.

The Grand Western Horseboat Company, first started horse-drawn passenger trips from the basin/wharf at Tiverton in July 1974 and Phil’s parents, Pat and Ray, had recently purchased it - one of the last of its kind.

His visit wasn’t supposed to be life-altering. But something about the place - the rhythm, the stillness, the horse-drawn barge moving slowly through time - made him pause. And then decide to stay.