HQ on the river in Bray, the Rivertime Boat is based in Windsor, then Henley during the spring and summer, giving disabled people the opportunity to enjoy a day out on the water. The Trust also has an Accessible Boat Club at Bisham Abbey that offers bell boating, sailing and wheelyboat (power boats adapted to be driven by wheelchair users) facilities for the disabled.
The Rivertime Boat Trust was set up 10 years ago by Simon Davis – who has lived his entire life on The Thames – and his wife Pat when they sold their riverboat company to Hobbs of Henley headed into retirement. On meeting the Johnnie Hobbs some months later, Pat & Simon learnt that it was virtually impossible for him to arrange wheelchair access for the Thames boats and Pat went home, had a think, then announced to her husband, “I think we should build a boat for wheelchair users.”
Ten years, and the most incredible amount of hardwork later, The Rivertime Boat Trust has received a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for their work with their launch Rivertime, have set up The Accessible Boat Club at Bisham Abbey for disabled school children to go bell boating or sailing and for wheel chair users to be licensed, and then able to use, their specially commissioned wheely boat (a kind of speed boat for wheelchair users) and have taken over 15,000 disabled passengers on the Thames, travelled about 8,000 miles along the river, passed through 4,000 locks and benefitted from over 6,000 volunteer hours.
Pat was awarded an MBE for services to the Community in Berkshire last year (she was VERY reluctant to accept claiming it was only due to the hard work of others – eventually we persuaded her to say yes on behalf of all the Rivertime volunteers) and the Health & Safety Executive designated The Rivertime Boat Trust as an ‘exemplar’ organisation in 2016.
For more inforamtion on the Rivertime Boat trust vist the following pages
