IT'S more than 30 years since Stan Cullimore topped the charts with The Housemartins, whose quirky mixture of indie pop, Marxism and Christianity spawned classics like Happy Hour, Me And The Farmer and the number one hit Caravan of Love.

But three decades on the 56-year-old guitarist is more than happy to reminisce about a band who also gave the world Fatboy Slim (aka Housemartins bassist Norman Cook) and Paul Heaton, who went on to sell 15 million records worldwide with the Beautiful South.

"We are like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," laughs Stan, who is now based in Bristol. "We all assembled as this band before going off and doing great things. It's wonderful and I love it and when I go someone in the world where they've never heard of us like China I always tell people we were a boy band like One Direction. I don't think they believe me."

While his bandmates remained in the music industry, Stan went on to become a journalist and author of over 120 children's books, written for publications such as the Daily Mail, the Hull Daily Mail and the Bristol Post. He also composes music and songs for children's television but it's as a travel writer that he returned to the region last week where he was writing about a canal ride across Wrexham's world famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

"I love going on canal boats," explains Stan. "The Llangollen Canal, along with the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, is the prettiest I've found. As a kid my parents took me on a canal boat holiday when I was about seven or eight and it was in those days when you got an old boat that no one wanted and put a motor in and some beds and you could hire it for next to nothing so off we went. I really enjoyed it so when I started writing travel pieces and realised I could write about anything I realised canal trips were one of my favourite things to do and I liked nothing more than getting on a narrowboat and pootling off at walking speed for a week or so."

For Stan, the trip through the Vale of Llangollen and across the River Dee stands out for a number of reasons and not all of them to do with the scenery.

"Like every canal should be it's very quiet, green and has pubs at regular intervals," he explains. "That last one is always a big tick. But I also have historical connections with Llangollen because as a kid I used to live in Birmingham and had an auntie who lived in Betws-y-Coed and from the age of 16 I used to hitchhike up to there and actually lived there for a year.

"I'd often travel up the A5 and get stuck in Llangollen for the night so in my heart I feel like I've always had a connection to the place as I've spent many an unhappy hour there waiting for a lift."

In recent weeks, local councillors have been debating how Chirk must do more to capitalise on the increase in tourism visiting the region due to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct's status as a World Heritage Site, but Stan is of the firm opinion you need to be careful what you wish for.

"If you do shout about something more and more people will come and I really want to return to this stretch of canal soon so selfishly I don't want it to get busier and more touristy," he said.

"I don't want it to be like Disneyland but it is true there is a lot more there just Trevor Basin and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. When you leave Chirk Marina you get the Chirk Aqueduct which in itself is a magnificent thing with the railway next to it. It has all the things which make canals good plus it's got Llangollen at the end which is adorable and a really, really nice town.

"Best of all I think the people around there are really friendly. People on canals are usually friendly and sometimes it's like going back to the 1950s with people always making you cups of tea but everyone we met were even more friendly than usual. It was like they'd taken friendliness and turned it up to 11. We had a great time."

Stan's latest travel writing project is to describe how to have a city break via water which he describes as "two holidays for the price of one".

"I've done it in Oxford, Birmingham and Llangollen and next year I'm doing it in Cambridge and Edinburgh," he said. "You get a boat for a week and basically tootle along the canal, end up in a lovely city, have a fantastic time and then tootle back to the marina."

Getting back to his old band, Stan, who co-wrote most of the Housemartins' hits with Heaton, said it was great to see his old writing partner recently release a new compilation called The Last King Of Pop which features 23 of the finest songs from throughout Heaton's music career, including hits from his days in the Housemartins, through his time in the multi-platinum pop co-operative The Beautiful South, his solo years, and up to the present day in his long-standing collaboration with former Beautiful South singer Jacqui Abbott.

"I'd recommend all you readers to go out and buy several copies," he laughed. "Paul is still working so hard and very successfully and Jacqui is lovely too. They've been kind enough to put some Housemartins songs on there which is great because it brings back so many memories of my youth. It's really flattering and humbling that people still want to listen to those songs."