'Life in a 60ft steel tube in a heatwave is intense'

As the UK continues to experience one of the warmest summers in living memory, those who live on the water are feeling the heat more than most.

The Canal and River Trust estimates that as many as a third of the 35,000 boats on England's waterways are occupied as permanent homes.

Among those water dwellers is Wayne, who lives on his boat - permanently moored on the Oxford Canal - with his baby daughter, Elinor.

At certain points this summer, he says the internal temperature on his 60ft (18 m) long houseboat has risen as high as 35C.

"That is just insanely hot," he says.

"[Elinor] obviously struggles to sleep when it's ridiculously hot.

"Trying to keep her cool and keep her happy, it's all part of the joy and the challenge of the life."

Nathan Sherlock, who works at Tooley's Boatyard in Banbury and also lives on a boat, agrees that the summer heat has been "really tough".

"It is a huge challenge to try and keep them cool," he says. "I know a lot of boaters that have tried a lot of different things.

"But there really isn't a good answer, because it is steel and it does heat up and it holds onto that heat."

"It's like an oven," he adds.

Wayne's boat is also made of steel, which makes it particularly good at retaining heat - an advantage during the colder months, but not ideal during a heatwave.

"It stays hot for far longer than you'd think after the sun's gone in, and the boat's even in shade - it stays hot well into the evening on the boat," he says.

Wayne and Nathan's experiences are being shared by boaters up and down the UK this summer.

Jeff Slade has lived on his canal boat for the past 18 years, and is currently moored on the Oxford Canal, near Summertown.

His boat is 52ft (16m) long, just over six feet (1.8m) wide and has small windows on either side.

"It can get really, really intense," he says of the heat.

"Even our solar panels are quite old, and you'd imagine they'd work quite well in the summer, but it's too hot for them to work at full capacity.

"I hope the hot weather ends soon - but I think it's just the way it's going to be from now on."