Broadland Memories Blog

I was contacted this week by John Cannell who had read a previous blog post on here about Bureside house at Wroxham. John kindly sent me an extract from his personal journal recalling his memories of staying at Bureside during the Second World War, having been evacuated from London.

John became one of an estimated four million people who were evacuated out of the cities and towns between 1939 and 1945. Codenamed Operation Pied Piper, the mass evacuation of school aged children, pregnant women and mothers with children under five, was unprecedented in scale. Evacuation plans had been formulated by the British government during the inter-war years and the mass relocation began on the 1st of September 1939, when  Germany invaded Poland, two days before the formal declaration of war by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Over the next three days, an estimated 1.5 million people were moved to the relative safety of the British countryside. Although not compulsory, the Ministry of Health ran a huge public information campaign encouraging parents to send their children away, a decision which must have been absolutely heart wrenching. Most evacuees were billeted in private homes, as was the case with John and his family who were moved to Wroxham. He wrote:

A brother, Graham, was born on April 4th 1944.  We had not intended to join the evacuation, but Graham had whooping cough and the doctor said he wouldn’t be responsible for him surviving the damp conditions in the cellar or the air raid shelter and shortly afterwards we, including our mother, were evacuated to a place called Wroxham, near Norwich.  We were picked out as being the most respectable looking family out of a pretty bad bunch and were taken to stay with a Lady Hastings in what seemed to me to be an enormous mansion named Bureside.  We were housed in an attic and mixed mostly with the servants.  Graham slept in a drawer!

We had a good time there but one episode stands out more than any other. That was an adventure that must have caused people a lot of worry.

The gardener kept a lovely vegetable garden at the front of the house, with rows of neat plants – including what I now know were onions gone to seed.

Derek and I were chasing each other about this garden when suddenly I was horrified to see that we had broken one of these plants – and even more horrified to find that the gardener had seen us do it! He yelled at us and we ran for our lives. I ran up to the attic and hid under the bed.

I remember someone coming in to look for me and as they looked under the bed I wriggled round and hid behind the chair. When they went to look behind the chair I wriggled back under the bed. Having searched the house, they then went to look outside.

There was a river (the River Bure) running across the bottom of the garden and I found out afterwards that they thought I might have drowned in it. The police, local search-light crews and all sorts of other people were out looking, and my fear and determination to stay out of sight increased when looking out of the window I saw Derek being taken away by the local policeman. To prison, I assumed – actually of course just to help in the search.

I don’t remember how I was found, but I do remember being a bit embarrassed at all the fuss and being made to apologise to various people.

Other memories include my introduction to Rupert the Bear during school story time, visits to Mundesley for a rare look at the sea and sand, and a taste of still warm goat’s milk which I thought was revolting.

We went back to London later, in time for the V2 rockets, though not being able to see them meant that they made little impression on me. The V2 was the world’s first long range ballistic missile, comprising a warhead of about 2,000 pounds on top of a rocket motor and guidance system. They were about as inaccurate as the V1 but caused quite a bit of damage if they did land in an occupied area. The frightening thing was that because they flew several times faster than the speed of sound there was no warning of their arrival and no chance of intercepting them.

Wednesday 3 August 1988

We went to Wroxham today and after a bit of a search found Bureside where Mum, Derek, Graham and I were evacuated during the war.  A Mr and Mrs Clarke live there now, an old and pleasant couple who let us walk round the grounds.  It bought back a lot of faint memories.

Apparently Lady Hastings died in about 1955 and the house lay empty for 5 years until the Clarkes bought it.  It was filthy black from the fumes from oil stoves and in a generally poor state, but they did it up quite well.  The vegetable garden and the lavender patch have been grassed over but the rest looks much the same as I remember it, except that the well has been covered over and mains water laid on.

My thanks to John for getting in contact and for allowing me to share his memories on here. You can read the original article about Bureside here: https://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/blog/2019/01/bureside-house-wroxham/

I do love a quirky bit of Broadland history, and this one fits firmly into that box. A while ago I spotted an old press photograph for sale on a well know auction website. Captioned and dated on the back to August 1994, it was both intriguing and comical. Too late to be an April Fool, but was this a wind up, or was it actually part of a BBC licensing campaign?

Titled “Watching You Watching TV on the Water“, the caption read: “State of the art underwater tracking technology. The latest hand-held detection device and Licence Administration Support System is demonstrated by model frogman Chris Wilson.”

“Holidaymakers relaxing on a Broads cruiser could be disturbed by an unwelcome visitor when up from the water pops a TV licence man. The TV licensing team is swapping pinstripes for wetsuits to dive in on licence dodgers.”

When I managed to stop laughing, I had a quick Google but, surprise surprise, found no evidence of underwater TV licence detectors. In fact the question of whether these hand-held devices, or the TV detector vans which once roamed our streets, were actually capable of detecting anything at all remains hotly debated. Some claim they worked by picking up the electromagnetic signal given off by the old CRT TV’s and could pinpoint the exact room it was in, and even what channel you were watching. Others say it was complete bunkum and just a ruse to frighten people into thinking they could be caught out if they didn’t purchase a licence.

One online comment I found from 2010 claimed to be from someone in the know: “I used to work for TV licensing driving around in the detector van. It was full of fancy looking equipment for show only. NONE OF IT WORKED! They have a database of the houses without licences which they got by selecting streets and looking at who HAS got the licence, the remaining are targeted. Leaflets will be dropped through those doors advising them to buy a licence as the TV detector van will be in the area in a few weeks time. After driving round the area for days on end in a highly visible van with large antennae, leaflets are dropped again through doors saying they have been picked up by the van and need to buy a licence or face prosecution. Most people paid.”

So was this an April Fool that was just filed away at a later date, or was this genuinely designed to encourage the purchase of a TV licence. I have to say, that box doesn’t look particularly watertight! If anyone has access to the full article from 1994, or can shed some light on the story, then please get in touch via the usual methods.

During the early years of the Second World War, the possibility of invasion by Germany was seen as a very real threat. The eastern coastline of Britain was thought to to be the most likely point of attack, with East Anglia in particular considered to be the most vulnerable. A vast network of coastal and inland defences were created, all designed to either destroy or at least hamper any invasion attempts, the sheer magnitude of these defences is staggering when you consider it was then replicated around the entire British Isles. The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads played a hugely important role in these defences, and I discovered more about this during a recent talk and walk which covered the role of the village of Acle during the war.

The event was organised by Norfolk County Council in conjunction with the Friends of Stracey Arms Mill and the Water, Mills & Marshes Broads Landscape Partnership Scheme, and it provided a fascinating look into the defence of Britain on both a local and national level. Archaeologist, Chris Kolonko, provided us with the background of those defences, the strategies behind them, and the people involved. At the outbreak of war in September 1939, a programme of building pillboxes, anti tank blocks and traps, roadblocks, gun emplacements, barbed wire barriers and slit trenches was quickly put in to place both along the coastline itself and also inland. If the enemy had made it through the coastal defences then the towns and villages were the next line of defence, with major roads, rail lines and rivers being the obvious route of attack. By the middle of 1940, the UK was prepared for invasion. Over the next year those defences were consolidated further as new strategies and weaponry were developed.

The towns, villages and strategic points in the landscape were categorised in importance in respect of their transport and communication links. These were assigned as category “A” or “B” nodal points, others as anti-tank islands. Acle was deemed to be a category “A” nodal point due to the convergence of the river, the rail line and a major road leading inland from Great Yarmouth. Whilst little of the defences established in the area remain, studies have indicated that over a dozen pillboxes, eight spigot mortar emplacements, eleven roadblocks, three anti tank guns, plus infantry posts, anti tank blocks and “fougasse” flame traps, were located in an area covering Acle village itself, Acle Dyke, Acle Bridge, the surrounding fields towards Upton and the nearby rail line. The bridge itself was fitted with chambers which held explosives which could, as a last resort, be detonated to destroy the river crossing.  Magnify that across the rest of Norfolk and Suffolk and, indeed, the whole of the UK and you can appreciate just what an incredible feat of organisation and engineering this was. Both regular and territorial forces were involved in the defence of the region, along with the Home Guard, the latter playing an increasingly more important role in those home defences as the war progressed.

By 1942, the threat of invasion had subsided and, in December of that year, it was decided that defences within Britain should be scaled back. In 1944 those defences began to be dismantled but there are still remnants to be found. The WW2 walk at Acle is a 4.5 mile circular trail that starts from either the train station, or the car park at the recreation centre, and takes you down Acle Dyke, along the River Bure past the Bridge Inn to Fishley, and then inland to Upton and back across the fields, passing some of the pillboxes and spigot mortar pedestals that remain. Dr Andrew Tullet from the Norfolk Heritage Environment Service talked about the role Acle played in the defence of the region and then guided us around the trail, with Chris Kolonko providing further insights into the structures that still remain.

In Acle itself you’ll find two pillboxes. A type 22, hexagon shaped pillbox survived in a private garden, being used as a storage shed for many years after the war. That land was redeveloped in recent years and that pillbox has been preserved, now sitting at the end of Oaks Lea on the Springfield housing estate (picture above). The brickwork would have originally extended to the top of the structure. Inside would have been a Y-shaped anti ricochet wall, designed to deflect stray bullets which may have passed through the openings (embrasures). In the centre of the village, attached to the Manor House is a very interesting remnant of the war. It sits at the junction of three major roads – the road leading up from Acle Bridge, the Yarmouth Road and the Reedham Road. Here, a small building on the end of the Manor House was adapted for use as a pill box, the windows blocked up with reinforced concrete to create two gun positions. This is now preserved as part of the Grade II listing on the main house.

Heading down Acle Dyke, nothing remains of the wartime defences, although an old aerial image clearly shows that another Type 22 pillbox was situated along the dyke. As previously mentioned, Acle Bridge was considered to be a strategically important area with both river and road access, and the presence of a boatyard which was involved in the building of craft for the admiralty. In the beer garden of the Bridge Inn is a spigot mortar emplacement pedestal, another remains in a field at the rear of the pub and a third stood in the nearby boatyard. These were primarily intended for use as anti-tank weapons and could be lifted off and switched between pedestals as needed. A 6 pdr anti tank gun is also thought to have been placed here, along with the two 25 pdr A/T guns which were located in the village itself.

The bridge area is now believed to have been the likely site of the Acle sub-base of the Broads Flotilla. The Flotilla consisted of fast, armed motor boats which patrolled the inland waterways, investigating suspicious activity and laying mines on the open broads to prevent enemy sea planes from landing. Originally operated by the Navy, it was later taken over by the Army and became part of the Army’s Navy. The main HQ of the Broads Flotilla was at Wroxham, but there were sub-bases elsewhere around Broadland, including the Acle base. The Imperial War Museum hold a collection of photographs of the flotilla dating from 1940 and 1941, some of which are reproduced below under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence. These were presumably produced for the press for propaganda purposes but are an extremely interesting document of Broadland during wartime. Clicking on the images will take you to their original source on the IWM website for further information.

Eastick’s Yacht Station, Acle Bridge 1940 © IWM A 1567

The image above shows what is thought to have been the Acle sub-base at Eastick’s Yacht Station near to the bridge. This was originally believed to have been one of the boatsheds at Eastick’s yard at the end of Acle Dyke, but it doesn’t tally with other photographs of the sheds there at that time. A tourist guide, produced for the 1940 holiday boating season (which didn’t happen!) contains both a map and advert for Easticks which shows that they did indeed have another yard just upstream of Acle Bridge, where Bridgecraft is now located. The Broads became a no go area for members of the public, all recreational boating ceased. Many of the larger boatyards began to build craft for the admiralty and were themselves a target for enemy attack.

Broads Flotilla, Acle Bridge 1940 © IWM A 1555

“Group of launches from the Acle Bridge sub-base, commanded by Lieut L Dudley Ward, RNVR, coming upstream at speed.”

The Broads Flotilla at Acle Bridge 1940 © IWM A 1562

The Broads Flotilla training just upstream of Acle Bridge in 1940. The riverside branch of Curtis Stores, now Dunes Cafe, can be seen in the background on the right.

Broads Flotilla, River Bure near Acle 1940 © IWM A 1573

“One of the duties of the Broads Flotilla is to investigate suspicious movements. In this case it was reported that a man had been seen near a deserted windmill. The boats of the Acle sub-base go out to investigate. Lieut Ward points out the windmill to his coxswain, Leading Seaman Butler.” This is Stokesby Old Hall Mill, on the River Bure.

Investigating suspicious activity at Clippesby Mill 1940 © IWM A 1576

“Closing in on the windmill Lieut Ward approaches the door and finds that it has not been tampered with.” Although labelled by the IWM as Clippesby Mill, this is actually Stokesby Old Hall mill on the River Bure – many thanks to Russell Jones for providing the correct identification.

Broads Flotilla 1940 © IWM A 1547

“Lewis gunners ready in case of an air attack. Banks of the river are watched for any suspicious movements.”

Ormesby Broad Sub Base 1940 © IWM A 1557

“At Ormesby Broad sub-base, commanded by Lieut Wallace, RNVR, two ratings carry a mine along the jetty, with mooring cable and weight attached.”

Laying mines on an open Broad 1940 © IWM A 1558

“The mine is lowered over the stern of one of the launches. In the background is a line of previously moored mines.” This is either Ormesby or Filby Broad.

Broads Flotilla HQ at Wroxham c1940 © IWM A 1572

Armed motor launches head out from the boat shed at Wroxham, The Broads Flotilla HQ during the Second World War.

Broads Flotilla at Wroxham c1940 © IWM A 1554

“The group from Base Headquarters Wroxham commanded by Lieut Hart, RNVR, coming upstream.”

Base HQ, Wroxham 1940 © IWM A 1564

“Base Headquarters, the Houseboat IOLANTHE.” Looking up towards Wroxham Bridge.

Base staff at Wroxham 1940 © IWM A 1565

Another photograph taken alongside the houseboat Iolanthe at Wroxham c1940.

Broads Flotilla HQ, Wroxham 1940 © IWM A 1571

“Action Stations at the base of the Broads Flotilla at Wroxham. Gunners and coxswains run from their quarters to the launches.”

The Broads Flotilla August 1941 © IWM H 12969

“An officer in the Broads Flotilla gives instructions to two coxwains during an exercise on the Norfolk Broads, 18 August 1941.” Norfolk Division, 2nd Corps. This was taken after the Army’s Navy had taken charge of the Broads Flotilla.

Thousands of troops were moved to East Anglia during those early years of the war and they all needed accommodation. On the Norfolk Broads, it seems that hire cruisers were used to billet some of the Broads Flotilla. I had assumed that such cruisers were requisitioned by the Navy and Army for use, but a letter to the Headquarters of the Norfolk Division in October 1941 shows that they were actually hired from the boatyards. The letter, written by Lt. Colonel Walsingham, commanding officer of the 8th BN. Royal Norfolk Regiment, gives some interesting insight into the billeting arrangements and his feelings against proposals to build Nissen huts to house the men instead. He wrote:

“It is proposed, as you know, to abandon the Cabin Cruisers used for quarters and replace them with Nissen Huts. From what you have told me I understand that erection of the huts might start in about a fortnight’s time. Before this is irrevocably decided may the following points be considered, please?

From what I am able to ascertain the cost of building Nissen Huts at about £130 would represent the hire of the cruisers for many months. It represents an outlay of nearly £10 a head equivalent to billeting in a cruiser for about 400 nights. I am extremely doubtful whether suitable sites can be found for the Nissen Huts in some places.”

He went on to detail the current accommodation at various sub bases around the Broads. At Wroxham 16 men were sleeping in the main billet, 2 in another, 12 in cruisers and the guard in another cruiser. “The Guard plus the 12 in cruisers are there always on the spot in case of a sudden emergency.”

At Potter Heigham and Ormesby, all men were in a billet with no need for either cruisers or huts. At Acle, all were in cruisers except the cook. “It is difficult to believe that Huts in these marshes would not sink into the mud – or that they could be approached in the winter without thigh boots.”

The risk of flooding at St Olaves was also an issue where the whole detachment was housed in “a perfectly satisfactory boat.” A Nissen Hut had also been proposed here. “The site is covered with reeds and has evidently frequently been under water.”

At Brundall the proposed site for Nissen huts was near the station – too far from the sub-base  according to Walsingham. “There is nowhere else to put them – if the men are not at the sub-base the resulting delay in turning out in an emergency might be fatal.”  I believe that the Brundall sub-base was based at Brooms boatyard and, interestingly, he recommends that the cruisers being used there should be requisitioned instead of continuing to hire them. “They are liable to be sold by the owner at any moment as things are now – If requisitioned they could have some necessary repairs done to them.”

It seems that Brundall village and surrounding area saw a huge influx of military personnel during the war. “The Book of Brundall & Braydeston”, produced by Brundall Local History Group in 2007, includes a number of wartime memories. Margaret Lishman recalled how Brundall changed during the war: “It was full of troops. All the big houses and some moderately sized ones were taken over by the Army.” She continued: “They put up Nissen huts in the grounds at Brundall Gardens and Brundall House. Then the Americans hit the region. They visited the village for the pubs, madly careering by on decrepit bicycles.” Brundall House had itself been utilised as a military hospital during the First World War.

This is just a small snapshot of the Norfolk Broads during the Second World War, and there is so much more still to learn about that period. It does, however, illustrate the seriousness of that threat of invasion at the time, and also the astonishing speed at which a substantial network of defences were established across the British Isles in response. As war progressed, that threat diminished and Britain breathed a tentative sigh of relief, ready to reinstate those defences at a moments notice should the need arise during the remainder of the war.

Further reading and sources:

Acle & District in WW II – article on the Water, Mills and Marshes website.

The Horning Warships – article on the Broadland Memories Blog

Brundall House VAD Auxilliary Hospital (WW1) – article on the Broadland Memories Blog

The Book of Brundall & Braydeston – The Brundall Local History Group, published by Halsgrove 2007 ISBN 978 1 84114 630 0

A Norfolk Village in Wartime – Charles Carrodus, printed by H.Clarke & Co London c1949

Norfolk Historic Environment Service – https://twitter.com/NorfolkHES

Chris Kolonko-Weet – https://twitter.com/ckolonko

There are numerous photographs of houseboats on the Broadland Memories website, some traditional and some that were slightly more unusual in origin. From simple eel huts to converted lifeboats and wherries, and from floating pontoons with caravans balanced on top to the ultra modern Flat-Afloat’s of the early 1960s, houseboats have been an integral part of Broadland life for many centuries. As the popularity of holidays in the region increased, so did the range and number of houseboats.

I was recently sent a set of images by David Coote who holidayed as a babe in arms with his family aboard the houseboat “Gray Malkin” at Brundall in 1964. Gray Malkin was one of several ex admiralty craft which were repurposed for use on the Norfolk Broads after the Second World War, the most famous of which was probably the Fairmile B “Golden Galleon” which ran passenger trips from Great Yarmouth between the early 1950s and the 1990s and became a familiar sight crossing Breydon Water.

Gray Malkin was refitted for use as a houseboat on the Broads. Owned and operated by R. Fisher on the Riverside Estate at Brundall, it was described in Hoseasons 1962 brochure as being an ex Motor Torpedo Boat at around 72ft in length. Opinion by others who have far more knowledge than I do, believe that it was actually a 69ft Higgins Motor Gun Boat. The brochure listed her as sleeping between 8 and 11 people in 2 double and 7 single berths. There was an anthracite stove on board to provide hot water, a well equipped galley with a household sized cooker and refrigerator,  and a bathroom with a full sized bath. Included in the hire was a 12ft dinghy with a 4hp Seagull engine and a large rowing boat. It cost £36 for a week’s hire during the peak summer weeks of 1962.

1971 appears to have been the last year that Gray Malkin was available to hire on the Broads. What happened to her after this I don’t know. As mentioned, Gray Malkin was not the only ex admiralty boat to have been converted for houseboat use on the Broads. During the 1950s and 1960s there were three such craft at Oulton Broad – the MTB “Foynes” and the MGB “Blue Lagoon” which were on hire with Pye Marine, and the MTB “Young Jim” from Newson’s boatyard. The former MBG 56 “Morning Flight” became home to Commander Ron Ashby and his family at Hearts Cruisers in Thorpe St Andrew, and she appeared in countless photographs over the years. I also have photographs showing MTB 653 being used as a liveaboard at Horning in the early 1950s and, in the late 1960s an ex RAF launch renamed “Mutty” was available to hire at St Olaves. A further blog post is probably needed to cover these and others and will no doubt follow in due course.

In the meantime, my thanks to David Coote for sending me his family’s photographs of their 1964 holiday.

Whilst boating holidays have been attracting holidaymakers to the Norfolk Broads since the Victorian era, hotels, boarding houses, riverside bungalows and apartments have also accommodated their fair share visitors over the years. A recent email to Broadland Memories HQ included a rather intriguing set of plans for a holiday complex and clubhouse from the 1940s which, had they come to fruition, would have changed the village of Horning forever. 

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the holiday hire industry on the Norfolk Broads had come to an abrupt halt as the waterways became pretty much a no-go area for the general public. The hire fleets were largely requisitioned by the admiralty, many rafted together on the open Broads and at entrances to prevent enemy sea planes landing, and several boatyards began to build military vessels for the war effort. As the threat of invasion began to diminish in 1943, restrictions were eased, and leisure boating resumed. Far from picking up where they left off, the boatyards had an enormous amount of work to do to restore the boats following the neglect during the war. Limits on petrol use and food rationing also slowed the return of holidaymakers to pre-war levels. But return they did, the hire fleets increased, and Broadland infrastructure grew to meet the demand.

Norfolk Broads Flotilla 1940 from the IWM Collection © IWM A 1553

During the 1930s, Herbert Woods had been at the forefront of holiday boating on the Broads, with his innovative motor cruiser design and sleek sailing craft, he was a true pioneer of the modern boat hire industry. His fleet of “Light” cruisers had proved to be enormously popular with visitors and business had been booming. When war was declared in 1939, his Broads Haven boatyard at Potter Heigham began building vessels for the Admiralty and Air Ministry. The company was employing around 220 men and 80 women during this period. Between 1939 and 1945, over 200 craft had been built, including two Fairmile D Motor Torpedo Boats, a Fairmile B Motor Launch, General Service Pinnaces, RAF Range Safety Launches, Harbour Launches and dozens of airborne lifeboats. As restrictions on leisure boating eased in 1943, holiday boat hire resumed at the yard, but it seems that Herbert had his eye on a rather ambitious venture.

The Broads Haven Marina at Potter Heigham in the early 1930s

The name Billy Butlin is synonymous with holiday camps in the UK, having opened his first camp at Skegness in 1936. Harry Warner had built his first camp on Hayling Island in Hampshire in 1932 and, closer to home, the Rogerson Hall camp had been opened by the Workers Travel co-operative at Corton, near Lowestoft, in 1938. The common features of all of these camps were a large, central main building of very modern design with tennis courts, gymnasiums, ballrooms, dining halls and rows of holiday chalets designed to house the average family comfortably for a week or two. The introduction of paid holidays for Britain’s workers in 1938 encouraged more families to take an annual vacation and, with everything you needed all in one place, holiday camps were an instant success. An advert placed early in 1936 for Butlin’s new Skegness camp offered a week’s holiday with three meals a day and free entertainment from 35 shillings to £3, and it was apparently fully booked for the season ahead by Easter.

Back on the Norfolk Broads, Herbert Woods had begun to expand his empire towards the end of the war, buying George Applegates yard and fleet next door to the Broads Haven Marina at Potter Heigham and Southgates boatyard on Lower Street at Horning. These were run under his newly formed Broadland Yachting Company name. Herbert also owned the Broads Haven Hotel and stores at Potter Heigham, along with a large market garden nearby which supplied the stores, hotel and holiday hire boats with fresh fruit, vegetables and eggs.  According to his daughter, Jennifer Woods, in her book “A Famous Broadland Pioneer”, Herbert also purchased several acres of marshland at Horning, just upstream of Swan Corner. Here he later established Southgates Main Yard with its own associated fleet of hire boats. What Jennifer’s book doesn’t mention is that Herbert appears to have explored the possibility of some much grander plans for that site.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Antony Lyons asking for information on the Broadland Yachting Company. His late father, Eric Lyons, was an architect and designer. Amongst his papers were the plans for a development at Horning which had been commissioned for the Broadland Yachting Company in 1944. The scale of these plans is quite astonishing, and Horning would have been a very different place had the scheme gone ahead. It appears to show what, to all intents and purposes, was a holiday village on the Broads with a very modern main building incorporating a gymnasium and changing rooms, lounges, dining room and kitchens, ballroom, grand terrace and a large hotel wing. An extensive mooring basin would have accommodated a sizeable number of craft, a block of garaging was provided for guests’ vehicles, and the landscaped grounds included tennis courts and a swimming pool. To the north west of the site were a complex of bungalows, all set alongside small dykes so that each had access to the water. Moorings and a Tea Gardens adjoined the River Bure and were described as being for “non members”.

Club House Horning (c) Eric Lyons 1944 by courtesy of the Lyons Family (click on image to view larger version)

Not only did the plans exist, but Antony also sent me some accompanying artist’s impressions of the Club House scheme which he has very kindly given me permission to publish on here. Between them, they illustrate just how much the country was moving towards the future after the war, and it is a holiday complex which could quite easily have been dropped into the middle of 1950s/60s Britain. The post war period saw an increase in the building of holiday camps in the UK leading up to the “Golden Era” of British holidays, and it does appear to nod towards that traditional Butlins blueprint we became accustomed to visiting as families during the second half of the 20th century. But with a Broadland twist.

Artist’s impression of the Yachting Club at Horning (c) Eric Lyons 1944

The first view (above) looks towards the main building, with its canopied entrance, from the direction of the car parking area. On the left is the hotel wing with its balconied windows. The large white building on the right is the gymnasium.

Artist’s impression of the Yachting Club at Horning (c) Eric Lyons 1944

The second view shows the other side of the main building, the large picture window of the lounge areas overlooking the terrace and the River Bure beyond.

Artists impression of the Yachting Club at Horning (c) Eric Lyons 1944

The ballroom and dining areas of the Club House. The design appears to incorporate a huge expanse of glass and ultra-modern interiors.

Artists impression of bungalows at the Yachting Club Horning (c) Eric Lyons 1944

The final drawing shows one of the rows of riverside bungalows. The large picture windows and patio doors, and the wooden cladding, look very much like the holiday chalets which began to spring up around Broadland and elsewhere during the 1950s and 1960s. Remember, we are talking 1944 here!

They certainly were bold plans, and we will probably never know why it was never built. I do wonder whether the marshland would have actually been able to sustain such a large development at that time. The austerity which continued after the war certainly would have affected many businesses, and Jennifer Woods mentions that her father had had to start laying off employees due to a lack of work, even diversifying by taking on the production of wooden car bodies for Alvis and Healy, and repair work on Morris Minor Travellers. Perhaps the funds were just not available for the Club House scheme. His health had not been good either, suffering two heart attacks before a third, sadly, proved fatal in 1954.

Instead, the marshland here became home to Southgates Main Yard, craft for which were built by Herbert at Potter Heigham. The fleet flew under a white burgee with a red star, a variation of the existing Woods blue star burgees. The aerial photograph below from the Historic England collection was taken in 1951 and you can see the new Southgates yard centre right (click on it to zoom in). It was a very different development to that which was proposed in Eric Lyons’ plans.

Although he didn’t live locally, Eric Lyons had struck up a friendship with George Jenkins whilst both were living in Birmingham. Jenkins moved to the Martham area and established the Packet Furniture Company Ltd during the 1940s, producing a range of modern, utility furniture. The “Tecta” range was designed by Eric Lyons for that company. Once again, it really wouldn’t have looked out of place on display at a 1960s ideal home exhibition. Eric Lyons went on to achieve critical recognition for his modernist architectural designs in the post war years, working in partnership with Span developments. During the 1950s and 1960s, Span built over 2,000 new homes in London and the South East, and many of these estates included the communal outdoor garden spaces which were apparently a key feature of Lyons designs. He is quoted as saying “The test of good housing is not whether it can be easily built, but whether it can be lived in easily.” A sentiment which modern housing developers would do well to follow!

The Horning Club House plans and drawings are a fascinating bit of history, and I am very grateful to the Lyons Family for contacting me and for allowing me to share them here. As always, if you can add anything further to the story, or have information about George Jenkins and the Packet Furniture Company at Martham, then please do get in touch.

The Collins Family name was synonymous with boat building and hire on the Norfolk Broads, from humble beginnings in Coltishall to establishing one of the most successful hire fleets in Broadland at Wroxham . Ernest Collins in particular was renowned for the design and build quality of some very fine yachts in the early years of the 20th century, and the yard bearing his name at Wroxham continued to be an important player in the Broads boat hire market until its closure in the early 1990s. Having changed hands numerous times, the remaining hire fleet was finally disbanded and the premises was sold off for redevelopment. This story, however, concerns probably one of the finest yachts built by Ernest Collins and how she ended up 4000 miles away from home.

I’ve recently uploaded a batch of historic magazine articles to the Broadland Memories website, among which was a rather interesting tale from a 1964 edition of the East Anglian Magazine. The article concerned the Ernest Collins yacht ‘America’, originally built for a private customer at the turn of the 20th century, she was sold back and entered the hire fleet just a few years later. Harry Blake’s first printed brochure in 1908 was devoted solely to the Collins fleet. ‘America’ was listed alongside her sister ship ‘IO’ and, at 43ft in length, they were the largest yachts available for hire. The entry below shows that she could be hired for between £6 to £10 per week including two attendants.

The photograph below was featured in the 1964 magazine article and probably dates to the 1910’s.

‘America’ remained part of the hire fleet up until the outbreak of the Second World War. The brochure entry below is from 1935 where she was described as: “One of the finest, smartest, and most comfortable cutter-rigged sailing yachts”. A portable bath was included in the hire, although electric light was optional and would require the payment of an additional 7 shillings and sixpence a week or 12/6 for a fortnight. The cost of a week’s hire during the peak summer weeks was £16 – “with man and boy”.

These larger, skippered yachts seemingly began to lose their appeal as the hire industry grew, and motor cruisers became more abundant. They were beginning to be retired from the fleets prior to the outbreak of war and some were apparently moved further down the east coast to be used as houseboats, until they eventually rotted away. ‘America’ was likely to have suffered the same fate after the war, but a chance discovery in 1959 by a local resident who was spending his holidays sailing in the West Indies revealed that ‘America’ was still sailing – albeit some 4000 miles away from her original home. Whilst sitting aboard a yacht at Fort-de-France in Martinique, he spotted what appeared to be a Broads yacht sailing in to the harbour. A closer inspection led him to identify it as being ‘America’, modified for ocean sailing with a reduced sail size and a mizzen mast added aft. The owners told him that they had sailed across the Atlantic from Brightlingsea! The photograph below was taken at that time and shows ‘America’ moored at Fort-de-France.

The story was added to some thirty or so years later when the Norfolk Broads Yachting Company at Horning designed and built three new sailing cruisers for their hire fleet. These were a modern interpretation of the classic Victorian and Edwardian Broads yachts, and were each named after original Collins yachts – ‘America’, ‘Palace’ and ‘Lapwing’. Mike Barnes research in to the original yachts provided a little more background to America’s story – locals remembered her being recommissioned c1947, having been laid up ashore during the war. Her new owner expressed his intention to sail her overseas and rumour had it that ‘America’ was bound for America. Had it not been for the chance discovery in Martinique in 1959, her story would have ended there. It’s astonishing to think that what was a 60 year old Broads yacht at the time could successfully undertake such an incredible journey. Testament indeed to the original design and build quality of Ernest Collins boats. What happened to ‘America’ after this epic voyage remains a mystery though …. unless anyone can add to her story?

A link to the original magazine article, plus other new additions including articles on the old horse ferry at Reedham, Norfolk Wherries, and the passenger steamer Resolute, plus a nice set of 1950s photographs featuring the Landamore’s motor cruiser ‘Vesta 9’ can be found via the Latest Additions page on the main Broadland Memories website. A potted history of the Collins brother’s legacy, written by Roger Wilson, can also be found on the website.

I’m remastering and researching two collections of black and white photographs for Broadland Memories at the moment, both sets of which I had originally bookmarked as being early 1960s and filed away for further study once I was able to start work on them. An afternoon spent trawling the internet for some answers this week led me off on a tangent, but ultimately solved a puzzle and provided me with an earlier date for at least one of the sets.

I sometimes find myself researching subjects which often bear little relevance to the Norfolk Broads but are important in gathering further information on the history of some of the photographs within the archive. One set of photos, all from the same roll of film and seemingly taken during a holiday on the Norfolk Broads around 1960, have proved to be a perfect example this week. It’s also an illustration of how much time can be spent working on just a small batch of images.  Around half of the 20 photographs and negatives were obviously attributable to Broadland – a number of shots of the boat the photographer hired (more on that later), and a few landscape scenes which were unmistakably taken during the same trip. There were also some photographs of large ships and a couple of USS destroyers at port, a couple of images of Scottish fishing boats and one shot of a lifeboat being pushed up from the beach.

The ships and navy boats could possibly have been Great Yarmouth, or maybe Lowestoft at first glance, the fishing boats too. The lifeboat (above) was a different matter as it didn’t look like any location in Norfolk or Suffolk that I knew. Zooming in, the lettering on the hull read “North Sunderland Life Boat” which gave me a good starting point. I quickly found that this was likely to have been taken at Seahouses, on the North Northumberland coast. It’s a fabulous photo and will either have been the lifeboat “W.R.A.” (1936-54) or “Grace Darling” which came into operation in 1954. Perhaps someone out there with a little more knowledge might be able to provide an answer.

Now, I realise that I’m moving a good way beyond my Norfolk and Suffolk Broads remit here, but felt these really ought to be published somewhere. It also possibly helped me to push the date of the photographs back in to the 1950s, maybe even the first half of the decade going by the clothes and hairstyles seen above. It perhaps gave a clue as to where the holiday party had travelled from too.

 There were two photographs of fishing vessels, some registered to Leith and one to Berwick. Whilst it certainly would have been possible that they were fishing off the Norfolk or Suffolk coast, I wondered whether these were actually photographed at the same time as the lifeboat above. A bit more trawling (pun intended) of the internet revealed that the image above does indeed feature the harbour mouth at Seahouses.

Moving on to the large ships. Most were slightly fuzzy and I was unable to read any names, apart from one. Once again, on closer study, the background of these ships in port just didn’t look quite like any photographs I’d seen of either Great Yarmouth or Lowestoft. An online search for the name “Recorder”, seen on the bow of the ship above, eventually resulted in the discovery that she was a cable ship, built by the Swan Hunter shipyard at Wallsend on the River Tyne, and was launched in 1954. Further searches uncovered an almost identical photo which was labelled as having been taken at Swan Hunter in 1954. Bingo! More evidence too that our Broadland holidaymakers may have travelled to the area from north east of the country.

I’m guessing that the photos of the two US Navy Destroyers were also taken on the River Tyne. DD-890 “Meredith” and DD-821 “Johnston” were both launched in 1945 and were part of Destroyer Squadron 6. Online sources indicate they were deployed for operations in the Mediterranean and the coast of Northern Europe (the British Isles, Scandinavia and the Baltic) during the early to mid 1950s. “Johnston” went to the assistance of the Dutch in 1953 after the catastrophic floods which also hit the East Coast of Britain, the crew donating warm clothing and over $1200 for the storm victims.

Having been distracted for almost an entire afternoon, I got very little work done on the actual Broads photographs. They were now whittled down to just eleven, mostly featuring the motor cruiser B478 “Vesta 9” which had been hired from E.C. Landamore’s boatyard at Wroxham.  The first Vestas were built c1934 and, at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, there were four in the class. Once hostilities ceased in 1945 and the hire fleets got going again, the fleet of Vestas was increased over the next few years to a total of twelve by the early 1950s. The original four Vestas were also replaced by new craft bearing the same numbers. Sleeping four in two cabins, both with adjoining W.C.’s, the wheelhouse had a collapsible canopy and folding windscreen to enable it to pass beneath the Broadland bridges. The galley was originally equipped with a paraffin cooker but this had been replaced with a gas stove by 1954. A week’s hire cost between £26 and £41 depending on the time of year. A deposit of £6 10 shillings was required when booking, with the remaining balance payable on arrival at the boatyard at the start of your holiday. The entry for the Vesta class from the 1954 edition of Blake’s “Holiday’s Afloat” brochure can be seen on the left.

I can now finish working on remastering the Broads photos and will get them online very soon. I’m fairly confident that the second set of photographs, bought from a different source, are definitely 1960s ….. at the moment!

In June 1957, The Andrews’ Family set off from their home in Croydon for a two week adventure on the Norfolk Broads aboard the motor cruiser “Somari”. The trip was documented in a detailed, 40 page scrapbook which I have just uploaded to the main Broadland Memories website.

The scrapbook came to me having been orphaned from the original family so, sadly, I know nothing about the Andrews other than where they were living in 1957. The party consisted of three generations – mum, dad, young lad and one set of in-laws – and the holiday had been booked via the Bradbeers agency back in the January of 1957. The scrapbook notes that Hoseasons had been fully booked for the two weeks they wanted when they had telephoned them. “Somari” was hired by H.E. Woolmer of Oulton Broad, was 30 ft in length with 5 single berths in two cabins. The cost for the two week holiday was £63.  After a rough crossing of Breydon Water on the first day, the family then covered the entire network of rivers and Broads over the following fortnight.

Their journey, including various mishaps along the way, is documented via the copious, hand-written notes throughout, and is illustrated with lots of original photographs, postcards, pictures, maps and cartoons cut from brochures, tourist guides, magazines and newspapers at the time. It is a fabulous record of a boating holiday on the Broads during that era. The handwriting is sometimes a little difficult to decipher, but I felt that it should be published in its original form as it is such a charming thing. There are hidden items too – a fold-out letter, text hidden beneath a postcard and a lovely map and guide to Norwich, which are viewable by clickable links on the respective pages. As it is too large for an A4 scanner, I had to rig up a camera on a frame to photograph the pages instead. The original photographs have been individually scanned, remastered and put back on the pages as they were not the greatest quality, but they are at least now viewable. If I eventually get access to an A3 scanner, I will re-do the entire scrapbook, but I wanted to get this published in the best way I could manage for now as it deserves a wider audience.

The last night of the holiday was spent back at Oulton Broad Yacht Station which was apparently rammed with boats due to filming that was taking place for a TV show that evening. A news cutting added to the scrapbook shows this as being a programme called “Pleasure Boat”, hosted by Kenneth Horne along with George Martin (no, not the Beatles producer), Michael Holliday and The Crew Girls. The 40 minute show was described as “Music and song afloat in a series of cruises presented for your pleasure by Derek Burrell-Davis. Come aboard the ‘South Town’ on ‘The Broads’ with the ships company.” Derek Horne and a couple of the other stars of the show were photographed by the family and appear in the scrapbook too.

The steam ship “South Town” was usually found plying its trade between Great Yarmouth and Gorleston but is seen above at Oulton Broad on the day of filming.

The scrapbook runs over two pages of the website and can be found here: Norfolk Broads Holiday Afloat June 1957

Amongst the galleries of the Broadland Memories website is an extensive collection of images of Broadland taken by local resident Donald Shields between 1903 and 1910. Although an amateur, Donald was an extremely talented photographer who captured some stunning images of Broadland during the Edwardian era. I’ve often wished that I could go back and see what the area really looked like at that time. As the possibility of finding a time machine seems unlikely, I thought I’d use a little photo editing wizardry to try to bring the past to life instead. 

Following our second house move of 2020 in October, (and hopefully the last move for the foreseeable future), I finally have my much wished for office space from which to work on Broadland Memories. It certainly beats working from a settee in the living room as I have been for the last 14 years! I am just about there with getting everything set up and will be starting to add new additions to the website very soon. In the meantime, I’ve been experimenting with colourising a few old photographs from the archive whilst getting my hand back in and I thought I’d share some of the results here. It’s amazing how many details you can now pick out.

The photograph above is from 1903 and shows three of Donald’s friends at an unknown location on the Broads. Note the phonograph with its horn sitting on the cabin roof. Both of the seated chaps are holding wax cylinders to play on it, with further cylinders seen lined up on the bank beside the boat. The phonograph system of recording music and spoken word on cylinders, to then be played on portable machines, was initially invented by Thomas Edison in 1887, but the use of wax cylinders was introduced by Alexander Graham Bell a few years later with his “Gramophone” system. Not to be outdone, Edison developed a better version of the wax cylinder which then became the industry standard. The earlier cylinder players came with an attachment so that you could actually produce your own recordings too. The machine here appears to be an “Edison Standard Phonograph” which was introduced in 1898. There were no volume controls on these machines, so it’s little wonder that early 20th century guide books urged visitors to keep loud music down at night!

Another shot from 1903 – three unidentified sailors posing on board their sailing cruiser.

Moving on a few years to 1910 when Donald, along with his brothers Charlie and Archie, joined a group of friends aboard the wherry Bertha. Archie is pictured here on the right, holding the dog, whilst Donald is seen with his arms around the shoulders of another two members of the group.  The two gentlemen in cricket whites are wearing jumpers with a logo which bears the initials R.A.O.I., and an earlier photograph in the set showed the party holding a large banner emblazoned with this design. I’ve been unable to find out what this stood for. Answers on a postcard please!

The skipper and mate, along with what appears to be another wherryman on board (left). Bertha was operated at this time by Pallett, Barclay and Co. of Bacton Wood Mill on the North Walsham and Dilham Canal, but had originally been owned by the Press Brothers. Bertha was a converted trading wherry and an advert for the Press Bros. from the 1880s shows that they were offering four other wherries for hire alongside her – Elsie, Kate, Diligent and Lucy. Initially, the wherries would have been converted during the summer months for the short holiday season and would have then reverted to carrying cargo for the rest of the year. As demand for boating holidays aboard wherries increased, and the holiday season was extended, they were permanently converted for pleasure use. By the late 1890s, the company had become Press & Pallett who were listed as being millers, maltsters, cake, corn, coal, seed and manure merchants at Bacton Wood Mill, Staithe and railway station. When Edward Press died in 1906 his property, including the canal, were sold at auction and a Mr Barclay must have bought into the business as by 1912 the company was listed as Pallett, Barclay & Co.

At the beginning of the trip, the party were joined by their wives for afternoon tea on board Bertha. The colourisation has beautifully highlighted the spread on the saloon table – bread and jam and some rather nice looking fruit cake. Whilst most are enjoying a cup of tea, there is one pint of beer in evidence. Although one of the ladies clearly moved whilst the photograph was being taken, this is still such an evocative shot.

You can view the full collection of Donald Shields original photographs here: 1900 to 1949 Photo Gallery Page 10 (broadlandmemories.co.uk)

I recently picked up an interesting little curio which I thought I’d share with you in the run up to Christmas. I have a few festive postcards depicting wintry Broadland scenes, but this one is rather special as it was actually sent by a well known, and fondly remembered local character.

The card features a drawing of the Locks Inn at Geldeston, sketched in 1955 by Bernard Granville Baker and reproduced in postcard form. Colonel Granville Baker had a distinguished military career, serving in the Boer Wars and the First World War, but became well known for his illustrations and watercolours of military subjects. In later years he became a Justice of the Peace, living in nearby Beccles. The sketch of the Locks Inn shows a female figure emerging from the door carrying a tray – this is presumably the then landlady, Susan Ellis, and the card itself was sent by Susan to The Townsend Family with good wishes for Christmas. Spot the mistake in the location though!

Signed as Dorothy Ellis which, she explains, was her birth name, the card thanks the recipient for some “Busy Lizzy” plants which were left for Susan in the village earlier in the year.

It’s been a difficult year for all and Christmas is going to be very different, but let’s hope that 2021 is kinder to everyone. In the words of Potter Heigham resident Sidney Grapes under his alias of The Boy John in 1954:

“I must knock orf, but not afore wishen tha hull lot on yer, a Werry Happy Christmas. So fare yer well, tergether.”

I have a small collection of old Norfolk Broads holiday brochures which are invaluable when researching collections of old photographs. Whilst the excellent Boats of The Norfolk Broads database, created and maintained with absolute devotion by the late Craig Slawson, is the go to website for matching registration numbers to boats seen in old photographs, there will always be gaps to fill in, especially where older yachts and motor cruisers are concerned.

A strong collectors market for all things Norfolk Broads often puts most of the older brochures beyond my reach. Although I’ve managed to pick up a few for my own collection, I was extremely grateful to be given the loan of a set of 1930s and 1940s Blakes brochures a few years ago, most of which I was able to scan for future reference. Whilst the Blakes agency began producing annual yachting lists and brochures from 1908 onwards, Hoseasons from the 1940s, and other agencies including Bradbeer, Helmsman and Pennant’s popping up at various points along the way, many boatyards have also produced their own brochures, advertising leaflets and booklets over the years. I previously wrote an article about a 1930s “Jollidays” brochure, published by Herbert Woods, but this blog post is dedicated to another little gem from the same era.

Graham Bunn established a boat building yard at Wroxham around 1920, initially building small cruising yachts and developing motor cruisers for the hire market. In 1932, Bunn moved to new premises in Wroxham – The Maltings Yard – which was situated off the Norwich Road. The c1937 map on the left shows the approximate location of this, and other boatyards in Wroxham and Hoveton at the time. Bunn built three classes of motor cruiser for hire – the 38ft “Fair Wind”, the 32ft “South Wind” and the 24ft “Eddy Wind”. Although the yard didn’t become known as Windboats until the 1940s, when under the ownership of Donald Hagenbach, the name “Wind Boats” was actually introduced by Graham Bunn in 1933 to describe and promote his growing fleet. Whilst affiliated to Harry Blake’s agency and listed in his annual yachting lists, Bunn also produced a small, hard backed book which served as both a brochure for his motor cruiser hire and as a sales catalogue for prospective owners. It’s a beautiful little book which I believe dates from the mid 1930s. It included detailed descriptions of the three classes for hire, the fixtures, fittings and deck equipment etc. supplied, a guide for motor cruiser use, plus a price list should you wish to purchase your own boat. Photographs of the fleet, the yard, and people enjoying holidays aboard “Wind Boats” illustrated the booklet throughout.

“As a result of many years’ experience as a producer of master-craft suitable for continuous and strenuous service, GRAHAM BUNN now presents the “WIND” Boats. Original and smart in their sporting appearance, and efficient to a remarkable degree, they possess interior arrangements of such a commodious and comfortable nature, as would be common to craft of double the size. Their efficiency has been proved over many months of hard service, and their ease of operation, reliability, and exceptional convenience has been commented upon by everyone of their many users.”

This was the entry for The “Fair Wind” class which slept seven people. It was fitted with a 4-cylinder “POWER” engine, freshwater was supplied to the galley from a 20 gallon tank via the “BEE” automatic electric water supply system, and cooking was done on a Taylor’s double-burner paraffin cooker and oven. The cost of hire began at £13 per week, rising to £18 during the peak, summer period. A 12ft sailing or rowing dinghy was included with the hire, but insurance, petrol, oil and laundry costs for the linen were extra. If you wished to buy one of the 38ft class, which were supplied fully equipped, prices started at £800 for a single-screw version or £900 for a twin-screw. The 24ft, four berth model could be bought for £500.

“Fair Wind” and “South Wind” Saloon

“South Wind” and “Eddy Wind” Aft Cabin

“Eddy Wind” Galley and Fore Cabin

Control Station All “Wind” Boats

What makes the book rather special, and very different to other brochures of the era, was that Graham Bunn obviously fancied himself as a bit of a poet. There are rhymes and poetic musings throughout, culminating in a 14 day Broads diary. I thought it might be of interest to reproduce as much of this a possible, including the original photographs used in the book. Over to Graham for the rest of this blog post ……

______________________________________

How can I let your life go
For lack of making a little try,
To fathom your dearest holiday hopes
By offering you some anchors and ropes.
Firmly attached to a stylish boat,
Believed to be the best afloat.
Style and elegance planned for you,
Complete the whole with you and crew.

“I will not weary you with superlatives extolling the virtues of this place, but will hold myself to say merely that a Broads holiday is a very original experience, and if you are equipped with the right party, a good boat and fifty per cent fine weather, you can have a very good time, at a much lower cost than you can afford. As the holiday has become more popular, and craft have multiplied, the essential services of stores, provisions, fuel, garaging, amusements, have also increased and brought their beneficient aids to the holiday-maker. The scope of the vacation can be gained to a certain extent from the brief diary and map in this book.”

The Maltings Yard and Lake

“I have been told that many would-be Broads users hesitate to take a boat for the following reasons, among others, and I therefore take pleasure in explaining the groundless nature of their fears. To do this I must again break into rhyme.”

Thieves are a rarity, intrusions unknown,
Once you’re on board, you are all on your own.
You’ll not be seasick, it’s all a mistake,
It’s smoother than rowing about on a lake.
Your motor should not fail at any time,
But should you need help, ring double one nine.
Steering’s a serious but most easy task,
I’ll show you how, and explain what you ask.

The only “Rats!” that can intrude,
Are those your friends say when they’re rude.
Moor almost anywhere when you stop,
On rare occasions, a shilling may “pop”.
If larder is bare and petrol is low,
You’ll find “fill-ups” every mile or so.
Why worry if sometimes it rains a bit,
The rest of England has more of it.

You’ll get your letters, have no fear,
Special arrangements are made about here.
You’ll often need and get advice,
It’s all well-meant, please take it “nice”.

“The diary which follows might have been the tale of your wonderful holiday. Fourteen days of unfettered freedom on a floating home, in surroundings entirely different and better compared with other holidays. My boats are ready to help you sunbathe, fish, swim, row, sail, sing, or lull you to a pleasant sense of well-being.”

Saturday

“So this is Wroxham, not a bad place
Looks rather friendly – “Confound this suitcase”
Here are our stores and the boat’s ready too.
Soon we are off, the whole “Jolly Crew”.
Away up the stream, which wiggles about.
We can’t go wrong, there’s no way out.
Where shall we stop? Why just on the right,
In with the anchors and stay the night.”
6 miles

Sunday

Now for a bathe, after we’ve fed,
I’m sure the others will get out of bed.
We start off down-stream to Wroxham Broad,
Horning and Acle, past other boats moored.
Alongshore is shallow now, better near middle,
“Stranding’s” the answer to “re-floating’s” riddle.
To stay at Yarmouth and fill with fresh water,
Undoubtedly pleased the Inkeeper’s Daughter.
32 miles

Monday

An early start is in our plan,
Through Breydon tide and fisher clan.
“To Left! To Left!” the crew all shout,
Then we stop, the petrol “out”.
Bridge after bridge we leave intact,
And Oulton Dyke was soon side-tracked.
Old Beccles Town was to the right,
And tired out we stayed the night.
21 miles

Tuesday

Now with the motor idly turning,
We ripple our way to a pleasant hill.
Near Aldeby Bridge we stay and bathe awhile,
And dry ourselves in a splendid Sun.
A lengthy meal, a quiet snooze,
And onwards to Oulton Broad we meander.
A worthy Port of Waiting
          until Lowestoft has given of its best to us.
6 miles

Wednesday

To the most Eastern point of Britain, shops,
      people, and things; but we are on holiday
      and all are happy things. The cobbled streets
      are music, and the fish wharves “Ozone”.
1 ½ miles – bus, train, or walk.

Thursday

The ship is dirty, “sez you” – sez Bill,
And so we set to work with a will;
With mop and scrub, and “Vim” in Tin,
Our fingers soon lost bits of skin.
Then on to St. Olaves and through a straight cut,
As if the river had made a “rut”;
Reedham and Cantley all in good time,
We must reach Brundall to make a rhyme.
23 miles

Friday

Now away to the Capital of England’s East,
Cupp’d in a valley and capp’d with haze;
Pull’s Ferry welcomes, and comes a new adventure
Of blending yachting kit with city raiment.
Our sight-seeing over and shopping well done,
The boat calls us again, and with its gentle purr,
        soothes the noise from our very soul, and puts
        in its place a longing for a quiet evening and
        night at some pleasant mooring.
14 miles

Saturday

“A slippery deck maketh a fine diver” – (KING FISCHA).

Dear little dinghy
Put up your sail
Then blow me along;
I’ll make up a tale
To tell the others,
Well – just for swank
Just say nothing
Of ramming the bank.

“An engine switched on starteth easier” – (JENNY RATER).

“A kind tide reduceth friction in the fuel pipe” – (SHELLEY MEX).

To the left is right for Breydon and Yarmouth.
21 miles

Sunday

“Twenty bells” would not wake us at dawn,
We sleep then soundly until the morn,
Is well ahead, as we do at home;
“My hat! Where did I put my comb”?
Along up the Bure, at first it looks “Dutch”,
Windmills, then chimneys built out of a hutch
The boat goes well and is doing its turn,
To place us quickly well up the Thurne.
17 miles.

Monday

“Pottah” to Oxford, “Porrayam” to those,
Who tell us just to follow our nose;
Hickling, Somerton, Waxham, all and each,
Are not very far from a lovely white beach.
Bathe and sunbathe till we’ve had enough;
Then back to the boat to find a tough
Bunch of weeds round propeller, these we dislodge
With the boathook, truly a capital dodge.
9 miles.

Tuesday

Fine mops to sell, who said “Oh H_ll”?
We clean the boat dinghy as well.
We’re off down the Thurne and up the Bure,
I’m sure St. Benet’s and Barton’s the lure.
But not today, for inclement weather
Has made all our clothes as hard as leather;
With record and radio we make a song,
Until neighbouring parties wonder what’s wrong.

Wednesday

Scurrying clouds and exhilaration,
St. Benet’s ahead, all anticipation.
“That’s it! Oh, yes!” – not much to be seen,
But think of the stones and mortar there’s been.
Right up the Ant to Ludham and Barton,
The place where that yacht and ourselves will part on.
We are for Irstead where river bed’s sandy,
For swimmers and others it’s ever so handy.
16 miles.

Thursday

Back to the Bure we twist and turn,
Up to South Walsham we see and learn.
Idyllic spots are there for the lovesick,
If you’re unlucky, well – take Pickwick.
The crew are all gone, arranged in pairs,
They’re off to taste the district’s wares.
Come hither dinghy – Oh, please, no blushes!
We’ll name the day in yonder rushes.
12 miles.

Friday

Oh that we could capture in small measure the perfection around us,
      so we might sip when in the chains of city life.
Even as our gaze comprehends the stream to Ranworth,
      it dawns upon us Nature would not permit such greed.
The Sun, Wind and Sky have so lent themselves to our happiness,
      that on our homeward journey we now know our dreams manifest.
This winding waterway edged with trees and subtle pools is irresistible,
      and to print its living soul on our memory, we respond to its call,
      and cast our anchor here.
12 miles.

Saturday

Shake a leg my hearties,
Let’s get on the way,
Our little dream is over,
We’re going home today;
Tidy up the boat girls,
It’s getting on for ten,
And if there’s any liquid left
It’s easy to “say when”.
We’re stony broke or nearly,
But nobody really cares,
We’re taking home some bargains
In samples of Nature’s wares.
3 miles.

G.B.

A holiday afloat is unique
I hope you will take it
By hiring a “WIND” Boat
Or buying a “WIND” Boat
In any case
May you have a happy
holiday wherever you may go

____________________________________

The memory of quality remains
long after the price is forgotten.

GRAHAM BUNN

On the morning of Saturday the 20th of June 1914, a group of prominent businessmen from the city of Bath boarded a Great Western Railway train, settled down in their reserved carriage and begun a journey which would see them alight at Hoveton and Wroxham Station later that afternoon. This was the beginning of a two week sailing holiday on the Norfolk Broads, an adventure which was painstakingly documented by the crew in a type written journal, accompanied by dozens of original photographs and printed postcards.

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Brian Kendall who asked whether I would be interested in the contents of a journal that had just been discovered in his loft, which chronicled a holiday on the Broads during the summer of 1914, taken by his grandfather and six friends from Bath. Not wishing to part with such a precious family treasure, Brian and his brother George kindly photographed the pages of the journal and sent me the results. This delightful, and detailed account of that trip puts a humorous spin on their adventures afloat, each crew member taking a turn in writing up the daily logs as the holiday progressed. The camaraderie between the group, the gentle banter between them and the hired crew, are a joy to read, and the extensive collection of photographs taken en-route bring the whole account to life.

The journal portrays a genteel era, but discontent was rumbling across Europe. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, just a week after the holiday began was to be the catalyst for the outbreak of the First World War. If the events concerned the holiday party, it wasn’t reflected within the pages of the journal. Life, and leisure, carried on.

Paddington Station, where one of the “Old-fashioned Great Eastern Station ‘busses” met them: “Our luggage, when piled on top, looked formidable, and threatened to break the ‘bus.”

Herbert Kendall was the proprietor of a well known ironmongery and electrical engineering business in Bath. He was accompanied on the trip by three members of the Fortt family who had a large provisions store and restaurant on Milson Street and, as part of the Cater, Stoffell and Fortt Company, were responsible for the manufacture of the world famous “Bath Oliver” biscuits.  The fifth member of the party was Henry Wood, owner of a stationary shop on Old Bond Street in the city. Charles Clarke and Reginald Jefferies filled the remaining spaces within the group. Their home afloat was “The Spree”, built by John Loynes at Wroxham, the hired crew were named as Arthur Webb (skipper) and Alfred Loynes (nephew of the firm).

The holiday party seated around the saloon table on board “The Spree.”

Skipper Arthur Webb (left) and crew member Alfred Loynes (right).

During the fortnight, the cruise took the group to Great Yarmouth, (they were not impressed!), Oulton Broad and Lowestoft, Beccles and then on to Cantley via the New Cut at Haddiscoe. Upon entering the Cut, the wind died where the skipper “broke it as gently as he could in his usual lucid and fascinating way, that if we wished to get to the other end today we should have to jolly well get out and tow”. The photograph below was taken during that “2 and ¾ weary miles.”

Towing “The Spree” along the New Cut.

Day Seven saw the party arrive in Norwich, via Whitlingham where they caught the train in to the city centre. That night they were kept awake by the “obnoxious effluvia” emanating from the nearby sewage works. Heading back across Breydon, with an overnight stop in Reedham, Potter Heigham was next on the itinerary. A half-decker, “Viva L’amour”, hired from Applegates yard provided the transport for a day trip up to horsey and Hickling where a luncheon of bread, cheese and “Shandy-Gaff” was procured from the Pleasure Boat Inn.

Day eleven found the group at Ludham Bridge, the jolly boat being rowed up to Barton Broad. At Ranworth, mention was made of the party on board the neighbouring yacht who were from the Argentine, and on Wroxham Broad the friends watched races between half-deckers. The journal provides a colourful insight into day to day life on board, the mishaps, adventures, and observations of places and people encountered along the way. The collection of photographs are a beautiful accompaniment to the narrative, capturing  the holiday party larking around, the places they visited, and some rare shots taken inside “The Spree”. The seven chums certainly weren’t afraid to muck in and help with sailing, quanting and various other chores on board. They even indulged in a spot of eel-fishing to provide breakfast. Departing Wroxham and returning home, it seems that a top-notch time was had by all; “Bath ended a most delightful, healthy holiday, which has been interesting from start to finish. We all feel that it has been a real rest and change, and shall not be satisfied until we have once more done the trip.”

Swimming at Oulton Broad.

The party from the Argentine on board “The Hazzard” at Ranworth.

The saloon of “The Spree”.

One of the cabins on board “The Spree”.

I’ve been unable to devote any time to Broadland Memories recently as we are in the middle of a rather complicated (and extremely stressful!) house sale and move which is going to involve shifting in to rented accommodation for a while. As most of our possessions, including all my archive material, research notes and books etc., have had to go into  storage, I’m not going to be properly up and running again until the Spring. In the meantime, I should at least be able to work on transcribing the 1914 journal, remastering the accompanying photographs and decide how best to publish it on Broadland Memories. Due to current circumstances (and possible lack of internet for a while) I am unable to help with queries or requests for photo use via Broadland Memories for the time being but normal service will hopefully be resumed in the New Year.

My thanks to Brian and George Kendall for allowing me access to this wonderful piece of their family history, and I look forward to publishing it on the website in the near future.

UPDATE 12/02/2020 – The complete journal has now been published on the Broadland Memories website:

http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/cruiseofspree1914p1.html