Hillingdon Canal Club

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Lets go back to October 1988 when Uxbridge Cruising Club held their A.G.M. The committee informed their members that they couldn't afford to maintain the premises so were going to vacate and move the moorings on the Thames as a Flag club only. 

So this is when the HCC story begins. 

A few remaining members got together and decided to form another club. Meetings were held and they luckily managed to find enough enthusiastic people to formulate a committee. The committee

quickly wrote letters to the British Waterways Board with our intentions and they informed us that the premise would go to the highest bidder. 

We started negotiations just on the linear moorings, then had to deal with the clubhouse and carpark which were in a very poor state. However an agreement was finally reach after the exchange of many letters.

There wasn't enough members or those with boats to pay the moorings so no income would cover the guaranteed £50,000 for a five year lease. This is when the committee realised that they had no means of producing this amount of liability until  a member stepped in and put his house as guarantee. 

Sadly this member is no longer with us but we have him to thank for his trust in those first members. 

We now had a committee, trustees and a few members with boats but this still didn't produce much of an income. We applied for an alcohol licence which meant formulating the rules of HCC, with this in place the courts granted us a licence so we could now bring in a small income. With all of the official side now resolved, the hard mundane jobs had to be tackled such as the bank accounts, membership and mooring fees had to be charged.

The members put in a lot of work and time to renovate the club premises. This included improving the fire regulations which meant we could hold more entertainment and club events so the club could bring in more profit. With the clubhouse now being finished, this enabled us to keep our promise to the British Waterways Board by opening the club to canal users like the I.W.A and A.W.C.C. 

To this day, the club is still thriving with plenty of full and associate members, full moorings and fantastic yearly events including club cruises, work parties and club events. 

We would like to thank the original founders of the club for all of their hard work and dedication they put in over the early years to make HCC what it is today.