When Julie Dodsworth began painting on her narrow boat, she didn’t expect her hobby to turn into a business venture.
But two years after her daughter, Bethany, suggested she might try selling her designs to manufacturers, Mrs Dodsworth has secured 11 major licenses in nearly 160 home ware products, which are being sold in more than 500 UK shops and seven countries.
Mrs Dodsworth and her husband Simon, who live near York and have a separate £1m turnover plant display business, bought the boat a few years ago. “We fell in love with all the jobs you have to do when you own a narrowboat and I got into the painting.”