alice griffin

  • Characters of the Cut: RiverMouse – Laura Lee Tanner

    Characters of the Cut: RiverMouse – Laura Lee Tanner

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    Alice Griffin reports… IT WAS a bright November Sunday in 2021 when singer-songwriter Laura Lee Tanner would embark on her first step in the creation of the folk quartet, RiverMouse, that she now fronts. Strolling past The Fox & Hounds pub in Stony Stratford, close to where her narrowboat was moored on the Grand Union…

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  • Characters of the Cut: Narrowboat Family Foster

    Characters of the Cut: Narrowboat Family Foster

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    Alice Grifin caught up with the Foster family WHEN Craig and Ellie Foster relocated to London for work, they knew they were at a crossroads requiring creative thinking. Ellie shared with me: “When Craig took a new job at a furniture and lighting company in King’s Cross, we knew that either I would have to…

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  • Characters of the Cut

    Characters of the Cut

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    Grant Hebblewhite – happy Ever After. Alice Griffin reports WHEN Grant Hebblewhite retired from the police in August 2021 after 30 years of service, he was looking for a relaxed life closer to nature, as well as a way of living that would allow him to move around. “I love the proximity to nature, the…

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  • Characters of the Cut: Dave Thompson

    Characters of the Cut: Dave Thompson

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    Alice Griffin joins Dave Thompson as he savours the tranquillity of the towpath IN 2012 when Dave Thompson lost his wife of 25 years, Sue, to cancer he was left not just broken-hearted, but also broke. “We had been living in Tenerife for the last year of Sue’s life and after she died I found…

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  • Raising a family on the cut!

    Raising a family on the cut!

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    Alice Griffin meets the Burr family: IT WAS on an early morning back in 2011 while working a narrowboat down the Oxford Summit towards Napton as part of a family holiday that Tim and Julie Burr decided they had to make the canals their home. Julie told me: “Tim’s parents regularly holidayed on the canals…

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  • Characters Of The Cut: Michelle Martin, Art On Board

    Characters Of The Cut: Michelle Martin, Art On Board

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    Pet portraits painted with love- Alice Griffin reports… A CHANCE sighting of an ex-hire boat at Longport Wharf, Stoke-on-Trent, one day in 2004 was to change the course of artist and musician Michelle Martin’s life. “I had been working at Moorcroft Pottery but had just received my redundancy papers. It was a sad day and…

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  • Characters of the Cut: Richard Paterson – Bird & the Bees

    Characters of the Cut: Richard Paterson – Bird & the Bees

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    Bird feeders and insect hotels handcrafted from reclaimed wood. Alice Griffin reports… WHEN I first bumped into Richard Paterson on the Grand Union Canal, he had set up his workbench on a spare piece of grass along the towpath and was busy sawing away with faithful dog Harvey by his side. Together they created an…

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  • Characters of the Cut: Star Crafts

    Characters of the Cut: Star Crafts

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    SIX sewing machines is not necessarily what you expect to find beneath the cloths of an historic working boat but this, along with workbenches, is precisely what you will discover when peeling back the layers of narrowboat Nebulae. A 71ft 6in small Woolwich butty built by Harland and Wolff in 1935 to carry coal and…

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