15 years of providing joy of river trips for disabled
A HENLEY charity which aims to make boating accessible to all is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
The Rivertime Boat Trust has taken more than 25,000 disabled or disadvantaged passengers and their carers on trips on the River Thames since it was founded in 2006.
Rivertime, a unique boat which was specially designed to accommodate passengers with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities, is moored at the River & Rowing Museum jetty between April and October.
Twice a day during the summer season, it takes up to 12 people from special educational needs and disability schools, care homes, local charities or families where a member has a disability on trips so that they can benefit from the therapeutic effects of being on the water and learn about the river and its functions.
The charity was set up by Simon Davis and his late wife Pat, who was made an MBE for her work with the charity in 2015.
Mr Davis, who grew up swimming and punting on the river in Marlow and now lives in Henley, said: “My wife and I had 15 boats on charter on the Thames and we sold them to Jonny Hobbs and his father.
“A little later on Jonny said to my wife, ‘I can’t get people who are disabled on to big boats’, which was understandable.
“She came home and said: ‘Simon, we’re going to build a boat for the disabled,’ and I said: ‘Yes, dear’, as the good husbands do.”
The couple needed to raise £165,000 to design and build a custom-made boat which would be fully accessible.
“It was an expensive thing to build but we raised the money, which was exciting,” said Mr Davis.
“In those days we made a phone call. Now you have to do computers and I don’t do all that. We had to phone people up and say: ‘I want some cash, please.’
“There wasn’t really a problem because we were determined. We never thought we’d fail. One of the things in life is if you take something on and you feel you want to do it, it’s about confidence and being a bit assertive, frankly, and determined. You can do anything.”
Rivertime was designed by Andrew Wolstenholme, a celebrated marine architect, and Paul Wagstaffe, then vice-president of the Inland Waterways Association, with a ramp, hydraulic wheelchair lift, large disabled toilet and sliding roof.
It was constructed on the Norfolk Broads and after successfully undergoing sea trials it was transported by road to Bushnell’s Marine Services boatyard in Wargrave, where it was officially launched in 2007 with Poirot actor David Suchet present.
The first passenger outing took place the following summer under skipper Lucy Herbert, who remains the charity’s sole employee.
She is the third generation of her family to work on the river and had previously been a relief lock-keeper.
Fifteen years on, she is still at the helm and also manages the bookings calendar, carries out routine maintenance and manages the charity’s team of 30 volunteers.
The trust received early recognition of its work when, only six years after its launch, it was awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award given to volunteer groups in the UK.
Since then, it has continued to evolve the services and activities that it offers passengers.
In 2014, it partnered with Bisham Abbey Sailing and Navigation School to launch the Accessible Boat Club.
The club gives people with disabilities and special needs hands-on experience with a variety of watercraft, including a specially designed “wheelyboat” for wheelchair users and bell boats, twin-hulled open canoes.
More than 2,500 disabled children and adults have taken part in accessible boating from Bisham Abbey.
Building on the success of the club, the first Rivertime accessible regatta was held in 2017 and opened by Princess Anne.
A second regatta took place the following year.
Mr Davis said: “I started the regatta for the disabled because somebody rang me up and said, ‘Can you help us?’ I said, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ He said, ‘Well, a regatta for the disabled’.”
“That has gone on for 10 years now and I’m a trustee.
“One thing tends to lead to another and you must be prepared to do it and can’t just say, ‘Well, we’ve done this and aren’t we clever’ but ‘What comes next and what’s the need?’
“Some people just run these things and say, ‘Well, here’s the boat’.
“I think we do it rather differently and we have some very effective and capable people helping us, which is good news.”
Over the years, the charity has worked with the River & Rowing Museum to support education for children and young people with special educational needs anddisabilities.
This was initiated in 2013 when former museum director Paul Mainds suggested a “museum on Thames” to supplement what the museum could offer to SEND students and to extend the range of activities the trust offered on river trips.
In 2019, the trust was awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom accreditation, allowing children from SEND settings to benefit from formal learning while they are on board Rivertime.
In September last year, a joint educational partnership between the two organisations was launched by Princess Anne when she visited Henley.
The Princess was shown the museum’s newly refurbished classroom and travelled on Rivertime with children who were experimenting with models showing how locks work and digital displays showing how tributaries are formed.
The programme will be rolled out when the boat is back on the water in April.
Chris Barrett, the charity’s chairman of trustees, says the activities offered through the educational partnership are unique. He said: “The idea is to take a lot of those, what I call experiments, the actual demonstrations, on to the boat.
“Nobody else in the country does that and Her Royal Highness was really supportive of what we’re doing and wanting to see that develop and be replicated and all the rest of it.
“We’ve been working jolly hard on this. It’s really important because it’s unique and they’ll get a high level of education on the boat going forward.”
Mr Barrett met Mr Davis through his role as a chairman of trustees of the Berkshire Community Foundation.
When Mr Davis was looking to step down seven years ago, he invited him to take over the day-to-day management of the charity.
Mr Davis no longer takes an active role and instead describes himself as the CIO, or “chief interference officer”.
The two men are committed to seeing the trust grow and want to see its success replicated across the country.
Mr Barrett said: “We both ran businesses in our careers so know the one thing you can’t do is stand still. You can go backwards, you can go forward, but you can’t stand still. We’re going forwards and that means new initiatives.
“As Simon says, we’re trying to punch again above our weight.”
The pair are keen to recruit new volunteers and trustees to help the charity to expand, particularly those with expertise in marketing, human resources or business management.
However big the organisation becomes, Mr Davis is determined to retain its original ethos, minimising visible controls and keeping the human relationships that are at its core.
He said: “We don’t do the ordinary, we do the extraordinary and make it work. We’ve kept the atmosphere, the culture. We try to avoid too many visible controls, though it’s all very carefully controlled, of course, with people who run the boat. We train the crew properly, we organise them properly.
“I think we make it a human exercise. We’re not a normal charity, thank God, and I hope we never change.
“Our culture is about the people and the caring and this is what Chris does. It’s brilliant, the smiles of the people coming off the boat. They are smiling and some can hardly walk and some can hardly talk, and the carers are just wonderful. If you look at it from the outside, it’s inspiring.”
Anyone interested in becoming involved, should call Mr Davis on (01491) 571257 or email at [email protected]