At the recent Leicestershire Tourism & Hospitality Awards 2023 at the Leicester Athena, the Peter Le Marchant Trust achieved a ‘Commended’ award in the ‘Best Day Out’ category. This is a brand new category for the Leicestershire Hospitality & Tourism Awards, who were celebrating their 30 year anniversary last night. The ‘Best Day Out’ award was sponsored by Visit Leicester, with all 14 nominees voted by the public, which made the Trust’s nomination even more special. Read more
The third day of our Youth Wellbeing week was packed today! We had plenty of Lego builders and craft creativity with fully booked canal boat trips and pedalos. Thank you to everyone who joined us. Tomorrow we have more crafts and pedalos, bird box and fairy door building, as well as a bouncy castle for the day. Read more
Day 2 of our Youth Wellbeing Week was a great success. We had plenty of young people trying out our climbing wall, crafts and watercolour sessions. Our thanks to Beaumanor Hall and Active Charnwood for their participation. Tomorrow we have pedalos, Lego building, painting, crafts and canal boat trips - please do come down and join in. Read more
We commenced our Youth Wellbeing Week, today. Thank you to everyone who joined in the archery, canal boat trips and crafts. We saw some wonderfully creative pebble painting, gratitude jars and journals. Tomorrow, we've got watercolour art, a climbing wall, as well as on-base crafts. Just pop along and join in - we look forward to welcoming you! Read more
Are you interested in a canal boat holiday this year? Our self-hire narrow boat, Jubilee is perfect for all. A recent customer gave us the following feedback: “Jubilee is a real joy and a lovely canal boat. She has all the facilities you would need for a comfortable canal boat holiday. The service and support we received from the Peter Le Marchant Trust was second to none... Read more
Over recent months, a team of students from Homefield College have been designing and creating their very own mystical garden at our Trust base. Yesterday, we welcomed Ayesha, Alex and Keleigh as they set about completing their plans. We think they have done a wonderful job and look forward to seeing them throughout the rest of the season as they tend to their plants. Well done all! Read more
Our Art Along the Waterways trip on 18th May was fully booked, and after receiving such positive feedback, we're happy to offer two further dates throughout the summer - Thursday 27th July and Friday 22nd September. Read more
Our boats have finished they winter maintenance, and we're excited to be starting our season tomorrow. Symphony has been decorated and we're ready to welcome passengers on our new 'Welcome to Spring' trips. We're looking forward to welcoming you all aboard this year! Read more
We are taking bookings for our day trips for 2023. If your group or organisation would like to spend a day along the canal this year, please do book early as dates are going fast. To book please call 01509 265590 or email [email protected]. Dates for our seasonal and wellbeing trips which are open to individuals and small groups will be available soon. Thank you! Read more
Our final trip of the year has departed! “Our thanks to all our passengers, partners and visitors for making this year so special. Our team wishes you all a Merry Christmas and a we look forward to welcoming you back to the Trust in 2023.” CEO, Tim Marren Read more
Some of the staff and volunteers from the Trust spent the day at Asda, Fosse Park today, raising funds for our charity. Our thanks to the team at Asda for accommodating us, and all the kind customers who donated. We look forward to seeing you all again soon! Read more
Our huge thanks to Mark Brearley , Customer Service Assistant and Abigail Moore, Senior Customer Service Assistant at Loughborough Building Society for supporting our Trust by donating funds received from their raffle to win a Hamper from Tesco at the Rushes. Read more
The trust has again decided to participate in the annual Christmas Tree Festival at All Saints with Holy Trinity Church in Loughborough this year, and have themed the tree around our lovely boats! Please do pop along to the church if you have the time, there are loads of organisations represented and trees to view, along with other events over the festive period. Read more
We have had our second group of students on the National Citizen Service, this time looking after our environment and raising funds for our trust. They decided to raise funds by having a bake sale outside Loc8me in Loughborough town centre, and we thank them for their help raising almost £300 for us. Also, the group took to the water in Canal and River Trust canoes and on the towpath on foot to collect rubbish on our adopted part of the canal. The group then created a sculpture for the Trust Read more
Last week we welcomed our first wave of young people from the National Citizen Service who raised money for the trust by making and selling bird boxes and bug boxes on Loughborough Market. They had to arrange resources, work to a budget and plan their time for the week. The week was a great success with the 15/16 year old volunteers making a huge £515.00 for our funds! Read more
On Saturday 15th May we held a now annual litter pick at the trust. We hosted 34 young people and families out on the water and landside on the tow path collecting an interesting mixture of rubbish including a tv, lots of bottles and cans, a lampshade and the usual shopping trolley pulled from the water! We were fortunate to have the Canal and River Trust loan us some canoes for the pick with their instructor Andy Oughton, and we look forward to having them with us again. Read more
Things are certainly moving apace. The shower room and bedroom are taking shape as are all the internal fittings. As well as moving out of the wet dock, we can also announce that she has been given the most timely name - Jubilee! More updates to follow in the near future. Read more
Last week, we held our Introduction to Crewing course aimed at 14-16 year olds and hosted 7 young men out on the boats for two days. Their training included steering the boat, learning emergency procedures, using firefighting equipment and rope work mooring the boats. We were blessed with wonderful weather for both days and will be hosting this course again in October, with full crew training for 16-25 year olds in August. Read more
We had a fantastic sunny day on Saturday 26th March hosting our first fishing event here at the Trust. Coaches from the Canal and River Trust were on hand to for one-to-one help training families the basics of fishing using a pole, net and bait. They also learned how to look after the fish in a humane and appropriate manner returning all fish back to the canal. The biggest fish caught was a 1lb 8 1/2oz perch, but everyone caught at least one fish on the day. Read more
And we're back! The first trip of the season was a great success - even the sun came out! Our thanks to our wonderful passengers and volunteers for making the day so lovely. If you'd like to enjoy a day out on the water, please contact one of our team for available dates. We look forward to welcoming you on board soon. Read more
We are delighted to be offering a series of new activities for our young peoples project! We will be having a new Saturday activity each month for you to come down and enjoy. We have a packed Autumn of free activities and courses made available with help from The National Lottery. Read more
We're delighted to let you all know we've received funding to have a new self-hire holiday narrow boat built for the Trust to replace our old boat, Melody. It's being especially built to accommodate accessible living and promises to be a beautiful addition to our fleet. It will be ready for late summer bookings, and we'll keep you updated with its build progress via social media and our website. Read more
We hope you all had a peaceful and healthy start to the new year. We're starting to take bookings for our 2022 day trips. The cost per person is £12 this year with a maximum of 20 passengers per boat trip. Our seasonal & well-being trips will also be running. All details will be posted on our website and social media so please do keep checking back. Read more
🎄 Our last Santa Sleighboat trip has left the base and we’re celebrating with the Trust’s Elves Days of Christmas! 🎄 We’ve had a wonderful time meeting all our passengers throughout the year and would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a peaceful and safe Christmas. We look forward to welcoming you back aboard in 2022. Best wishes, The Peter Le Marchant Team Read more