The Tiverton Horse-Drawn Barge Stayed in the Family

Becky and Dave Poxon took over Tiverton Canal Company’s horse-drawn barge on 1 April 2026, after her parents listed the Devon business for £425,000 in August 2025.

No outside buyer completed that sale. Phil and Jacquie Brind remain the owners. Their daughter and the horseman she met on the towpath now run the season from Lime Kiln Wharf on the Grand Western Canal.

The £425,000 Listing Never Closed

Phil and Jacquie Brind put Tiverton Canal Co on the market in August 2025 through Everett Masson and Furby, calling it retirement after decades on the water. The leasehold package was priced at £425,000 and bundled the working boats, two horses, tack, a gift shop, stalls, a yard and sole passenger-carrying rights along the canal.

The main boat in that brochure was a 70-foot horse-drawn barge licensed to carry up to 80 people, plus a second 50-seater horse-drawn vessel, rowing boats and Canadian canoes. Phil said the only reason for the listing was age, that he and Jacquie were both over 60, and that they wanted “the right person” with “that love for horses and boats.”

He also said what would happen if nobody came. If it did not sell, he said, they would carry on for a time and then face “a very sad situation of us liquidating the business.” Councillor Steve Lodge called that prospect a real loss to Tiverton. The barge kept running while the advert sat live.

FROM THE 1974 LAUNCH TO THE 2026 HANDOVER

1. 1974: Horse-drawn passenger trips begin at Tiverton.
2. 1985: Pat and Ray Brind buy the attraction.
3. 1986: Their son Philip and Jacquie start work on the barge.
4. 2006: Phil and Jacquie buy the business from his parents.
5. 11 January 2007: Tiverton Canal Company Ltd is incorporated.
6. August 2025: The couple list the leasehold for £425,000.
7. 7 October 2025: Phil tells a Mid Devon canal committee they are talking to accountants and solicitors and trying to raise money so their daughter and son-in-law can take it on.
8. 5 March 2026: The family announces the operational handover.
9. 1 April 2026: Becky and Dave Poxon open their first season in charge.

The listing copy sold a “true” horse-drawn living heritage attraction, right down to period clothing on the crew. That was not window dressing. It was also a dual track: an asking price for a stranger, and a family trying to find the cash to keep the same horses on the same cut.

Who Takes Over a Horse-Drawn Barge?

Becky Poxon grew up in the yard, left for what she called a normal job, trained as a veterinary nurse and spent ten years in that work before the canal pulled her back. “I’ve always been here,” she said. “I have such a passion to keep the horse-drawn barge alive.” She also wants the heavy horses kept in work, because few young people still come into that trade.

Dave Poxon arrived as the horseman in 2007, after years around horses and a family gypsy-horse and caravan business. Becky was still working with her parents. They married in 2015. Their sons, Jacob and Ollie, now grow up around the same stalls. Phil’s public line in October 2025 was that this path was his preferred goal, and that it was still early, because money had to be raised.

Jacq and I’ve had a really wonderful time in our 40 odd years, and met some truly wonderful people! We’ve had the best of times, and we are very excited to announce it’s time for our daughter Becky with her husband Dave to take the business into the future.

Philip Brind, owner, Tiverton Canal Company, in a Devon County Council note, 16 March 2026

He has told the same story with a harder edge. His father, Ray Brind, once told him that with a lifestyle job like this you either leave on a high or you never leave, and die in the pull. Phil used that line when he named Becky, a third-generation Brind, and Dave as the people to take the barge on. In his account they met when Dave worked as a horseman in 2006 and 2007.

Day-to-day control moved. The share register did not, at least not in public filings. Tiverton Canal Company Ltd remains an active limited company, number 06048607, with last accounts made up to 31 March 2025. A June 2026 profile of the new season still described Phil and Jacquie as the owners, stepping back. The company’s own site still told visitors to call Jacquie on 01884 253345.

Devon County Council Holds the Lease

The asset a buyer would actually have needed sits under a public landlord. The Grand Western Canal Country Park is owned and managed by Devon County Council, with support from Mid Devon District Council. Tiverton Canal Co operates there under a lease with the county. The sale particulars added sole passenger-carrying rights for the whole canal, which is why a failed transfer would have left the waterway without a public barge for the first time in decades.

On 16 March 2026 the county welcomed a third-generation handover and tied the barge to the park’s visitor draw. Becky and Dave were to begin on Wednesday 1 April 2026, after a 50th anniversary year in 2024 and a run of tourism prizes that included Devon’s Best Small Attraction of the Year in 2024 and a Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice award three years in a row, including 2025.

The Grand Western Canal and the horse-drawn barge are synonymous with each other, so it’s fantastic news that another generation of the Brind family will be taking on the company.

Councillor Jacqi Hodgson, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Biodiversity, Devon County Council, 16 March 2026

Councillor Simon Clist, then vice-chairman of the Grand Western Canal Joint Advisory Committee, called the barge a huge draw for tourists and a vital resource for the local economy. Councillor Neale Raleigh, the county member for Tiverton East, named Becky Brind and Dave as the people taking on the attraction. Phil’s own thanks went to canal manager Mark Baker and rangers Jo and Craig, the team that keeps the cut in a state where a horse can still walk it.

That is the quiet stakeholder map. A lifestyle buyer would have needed the lease, the exclusive passenger rights, the horses and the park’s goodwill. The family already had three of those. The council still holds the ground.

Two Other Horse Boats Still Take Passengers

Tiverton’s own materials call the operation one of the last horse-drawn passenger barges in Great Britain, and several 2025 profiles used “one of only two.” Other timetables still show more than one neighbour. The Kennet Horse Boat Company at Kintbury sells public horse-drawn trips on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Llangollen Wharf still advertises horse-drawn boats on the Llangollen Canal, and that wider business was placed on the market in March 2026 at £695,000.

HORSE-DRAWN PASSENGER TRIPS STILL ON THE BOOKS

Jenny Roberts closed the Godalming Packet Boat Co in 2020 after 33 years, saying busy towpaths had made a Maritime and Coastguard Agency passenger service too hard to run safely. She loaned her vintage boat Iona to the Tiverton company. That is how a Surrey casualty became a second hull on a Devon lease.

WHERE THE HEADCOUNT SPLITS

• Tiverton’s count: The company, and several 2025-26 write-ups, describe the Tivertonian as one of two remaining horse-drawn passenger barges in Great Britain.
• The other tickets: Kennet’s 2026 timetable still sells horse-drawn public trips from Kintbury, and Llangollen Wharf still sells horse-drawn seats, which puts three names in front of the public.

Phil, speaking when the Tiverton listing went out, said he knew of two horse-drawn barges left in England and Wales and a small passenger boat business in Wales. The Welsh name on the remaining timetables is Llangollen. The point for a buyer was never a national monopoly. It was exclusive rights on this one 11 mile Devon cut.

Evening Cruises Filled the 2026 Season

The 2026 public season still runs from April to October, five days a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, with most Fridays in August. Serenity Sunday afternoon trips continue at 2.15pm as a two-and-a-half-hour return, billed for ages 14 and over. Return trips on the working boat run about 1.5 or 2.5 hours, as far as East Manley Bridge, at a walking pace that locals clock around 2mph.

Becky and Dave’s first visible change was not a new engine. It was the clock. Evening sailings had often been private charter only. They opened them to the public after people asked to come as a couple or with friends rather than hire the whole boat.

THE 2026 EVENING TRIPS

• Gin evening: A themed public cruise built around a bar that already sits on the passenger barge.
• Wine evening: A second drinks-led night on the same hull, aimed at small groups rather than full charters.
• Fish and chip supper: A supper cruise that turns the slow run into an evening meal.
• Serenity night: A quiet trip sold on the canal at its stillest hour, cousin to the Sunday afternoon adults-only sailing.

Local notes in June 2026 counted four evening events for that summer. By 22 September 2026, near the end of their first year in charge, Dave said the feedback had been strong and that they wanted more of those trips next season, with tickets sold online. Phil and Jacquie stayed close enough that Phil came back to crew when needed.

The product on those evenings is the same one a lifestyle buyer was being asked to price at £425,000: a horse, a painted hull, and a stretch of water with no throttle. Visit Devon was still selling that slow journey in May 2026. People who post from the towpath keep describing the same thing, a boat with no engine and a one-horsepower pull, which is a poor match for a turnaround merchant and a good match for the family that already knows the animals’ moods.

The Welsh Cob, the Shire and Iona

The August 2025 particulars named the horses as George, a 15-year-old Welsh cob, and Brindley, a 7-year-old Shire, sold with their tack. In the 2026 season Dave still called George a cheeky worker who likes stopping for lunch. Becky’s working favourite is the Shire, the horse the family also spells Brinley in later interviews, “the most gorgeous boy,” happiest with a job.

The working passenger boat is the 75-seater Tivertonian barge, a wide-beam hull painted in roses and castles, carpeted, with a licensed bar and a flush toilet. Access is three steps, with no ramp or lift, because the boat is too old for that kit. The 80-person figure in the sale notice was the licence; 75 is the seating the company now advertises. Iona, the 50-seater that came from Godalming, is the spare problem. Becky has talked about finding her a meaningful future on this canal rather than leaving a second historic hull idle.

Every day when we take that barge out, you’re thinking this isn’t happening everywhere. It makes me very proud.

Becky Poxon, who now runs the Tiverton season with Dave Poxon

Dave puts the same thought in industrial language. These canals helped kick-start factory Britain, and the pair still send a horse out to do the original job. He also admits the pressure of a family business that a lot of people love. They describe themselves as temporary custodians, and they point at rangers, volunteers and the county park as the rest of the crew.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Owns the Tiverton Canal Company Now?

Companies House still records Tiverton Canal Company Ltd as a private limited company incorporated on 11 January 2007, with inland passenger water transport as its nature of business, last confirmation statement dated 21 October 2025, and a registered office at 6 Oaklands Court, Tiverton Business Park. Public profiles of the 2026 season still name Philip and Jacqueline Brind as owners, while Becky and Dave Poxon run the boats, horses and timetable.

How Many Horse-Drawn Passenger Barges Are Left in Britain?

Tiverton’s own pages say it is one of the last, and some 2025-26 profiles say one of two. Public timetables still name three operators: Tiverton, the Kennet Horse Boat Company, which dates its firm to 1970 and its Butler-family ownership to 1980, and Llangollen Wharf, whose wider canal business was advertised at £695,000 in March 2026.

What Did the £425,000 Asking Price Include?

The leasehold package advertised in August 2025 included the main 70-foot passenger barge, the 50-seater Iona, George and Brindley, tack, a fleet of rowing boats and Canadian canoes, office and store buildings, heavy-horse stalls, a workshop, a paddock, a gift shop, a tractor and mooring, plus sole passenger-carrying rights on the Grand Western Canal and a note that motorboat expansion was possible.

When Did Horse-Drawn Trips Start at Tiverton?

Devon County Council dates the attraction to a 1974 launch, with Pat and Ray Brind buying it in 1985 and Philip and Jacquie starting on the barge in 1986 before they bought the business in 2006. The company marked 50 years of the horse-drawn barge in 2024.

What Is the Grand Western Canal?

The cut opened in 1814 and now runs more than 11 miles from Tiverton toward Lowdwells Lock near the Somerset border as a country park and local nature reserve, with early-19th-century limekilns still built into the basin wall at Lime Kiln Wharf, where the barge starts.

On the Tivertonian, the 2026 season still ends the way the 2025 season ended, with a horse on the towpath and a painted hull behind it. The £425,000 advert did its job without ever finding the stranger it was written for.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a private company, a withdrawn business sale and an operational handover, and it is for information only. It is not an offer, valuation, investment recommendation or advice on buying, selling or financing a leisure business, a lease or livestock. Anyone considering a similar purchase or family transfer should speak to a qualified solicitor, accountant and, where animals and passenger boats are involved, an equine and maritime professional before acting. Asking prices, ownership, lease terms, licences and timetables are those given by the named companies, Companies House and Devon County Council in the sources above, and they can change.