Dalesfolk

For we had met to discuss, amongst other things, the weather - the awful summer weather.

It has rained on everyone in Craven this summer. But for some people, months of heavy rain can mean much more than simple discomfort. For those in the tourist trade, it can make the difference between financial life and death.

Unless, like Alan Hughes and his wife, Judy, you have invested very large sums of time, work and capital to ensure that, rain or shine, you can give the customers what they want.

"There is no doubt that business is substantially down," said Alan, one-time Mersey tugboat skipper turned canal boat entrepreneur. "But we have seen much worse. Fortunately, we have built up the business so that we can take the rough with the smooth."

This is an under-statement supreme. It may rain in Skipton, but the chances of getting caught up in a civil war, or having three of your crew killed by Iraqi bombers, are somewhat unlikely.

Both these things happened to Alan, son of a Mersey ferry boat captain who has been working hard, rather than messing about, in boats since he could toddle.

Having served his apprenticeship on the Mersey, he went to Iran to skipper tugboats handling oil tankers weighing up to 500,000 tons, only to be caught up in the revolution which toppled the Shah of Persia.

Having moved on to the allegedly safer United Arab Emirates, the war between Iran and Iraq broke out and one of Alan's tugs was caught in the explosion of an oil tanker bombed by Sadam Hussein's jets. Three men died.

"After that sort of thing, life on the canal in Skipton is pure pleasure even when business is down," says Alan brightly.

Having spent four years covering the Ulster Troubles, I know what he means. Alan and Judy, tired of life in the Gulf, advertised in a boating magazine for a suitable business in 1989.

They had never even been on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal but were offered Pennine Boat Trips by post. They got on a plane, drove to Skipton, and, in Judy's words, "it was a case of love at first sight."

They bought the Cobbydale, a converted wide-boat cruiser which is a regular character on the Skipton scene, in 1990, to ferry passengers up and down the canal, serving them cream teas or a pint of beer.

Then they expanded into special charters for wedding receptions, private parties, and corporate entertaining. The Cobbydale could no longer meet the demand so they commissioned the Dalesman, designed and built locally, and could take another 53 passengers.

Even that was not enough, however, so they put the Cobbydale into the boatyard at Snaygill, near Bradley, where she was sawn in half and a new central section added, bringing her passenger capacity up to 60.

Since then, business has boomed by some 30 per cent, despite this summer's appalling weather.

Pennine Boat trips operate seven days a week, providing work for 12 people. This, to me, is the interesting bit.

With farming in deep trouble and quarrying under enormous pressure from environmentalists, the Craven economy will depend more and more on the tourist trade in the new millennium.

But there are some people who, frankly, don't like the industry and the visitors it brings flocking in. And to be sure, trying to go about one's business in Skipton on a busy market day with the streets thronged with trippers can be a nightmare.

In this, the Cobbydale and the Dalesman do their bit in two separate ways. They get people off the streets and onto the canal and their contribution to the local economy is very substantial in a small town.

Says Judy: "We do everything we can to share our business with the community. When we are providing teas or buffets, we buy our provisions from local traders. If we are laying on a posh wedding reception or corporate entertainment trip, we hire local caterers.

"All our maintenance work is done locally. And of the ten people we employ, most of them are young folk. We feel we are doing our bit for Skipton."

In fact, they do more than their bit. Working with Bizzie Lizzie's, the famous canalside chippy, they have bought a small cruiser, wryly named the Skipdale, in which workers from both businesses regularly tour the canal scooping out discarded chip boxes and other rubbish which all too often disfigures the waterfront.

This is done quite voluntarily and is a major factor in making Skipton a nicer place in which to live.

If tourism is to be our major industry in the 21st century, we will depend more and more on people like Alan and Judy Hughes to come up with the ideas, the hard work, and the investment to make it work.

We may be a long way from the sea but we should be pleased that they have found their safe anchorage in the Dales.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.