Broadland Memories Blog

The old Blake’s and Hoseason’s boating brochures provide an invaluable source of information for me when researching the boats and boatyards of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and also give a good insight into how boating holidays were conducted over the years. I am always keen to add more to my collection and have also been loaned a small collection which were scanned onto my PC for future reference. In the past I have also received scanned copies of some of brochures produced by some of the long gone agencies agencies such as Bradbeer’s, Helmsman and Pennant, all of which have now been the digital equivalent of very well thumbed! Many thanks to those people who have helped with this.

Freshfields Boating Holidays 1984

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a copy of the FreshFields Boating Holidays 1984 brochure which included the Richardson’s fleet at Stalham and is interesting on many levels. FreshFields was a division of the Rank Organisation who were a long established name in the British entertainment industry through their film production and distribution and the ownership of the Odeon chain of cinemas. During the 1950s and 1960s Rank began to diversify their business interests which included the formation of the Rank Xerox photocopying company and the purchase of several British radio and hi-fi manufacturers. During the 1970s they moved into the leisure industry, buying up holiday camps, hotels and boatyards in the UK and Europe and in 1974 had purchased the Richardson’s boatyard at Stalham along with their fleet of 244 cruisers. This was an era when many large corporations were moving into the leisure market, cashing in on the booming holiday industry, and there were various takeovers of boatyards on the Norfolk Broads around this time by the likes of Ladbrokes and Guinness. There is an interesting thread from a few years ago on the Norfolk Broads Forum which collates some of the information together, but it is a rather complicated and confusing topic that I still haven’t managed to get my head around and needs further research. As the 1970s progressed, the boat hire industry began to fall into decline with less and less people booking boating holidays. In a rather simplified version of events, many previously family run hire fleets were amalgamated by the various groups into “super fleets”, boats were redistributed around the system and some yards were closed. As the decline set in, and profits presumably began to diminish, it appears that the groupings began to be sold on to other large companies …. and this is where I start to lose track and get a headache!

It seems that Rank did little in the way of maintenance and upgrading of the Richardson fleet and, by 1984 there were only around 70 boats of the original 244 available to hire from Stalham. What makes the brochure so interesting is that, although produced by the Rank Organisation, by Easter of that year the boatyard had been sold back to Robert Richardson. The potted history of the yard on the Richardson’s website mentions that the boats were not in the greatest of condition and only 54 of them were of an acceptable standard for hire, which resulted in three or four years of hard work to bring them up to scratch again.

Fleetline/Seaway class 1984

As I mentioned in the introduction, the brochure provides a very useful record of the Richardson’s fleet at that time, but it was also bought with a certain amount of nostalgia as it was the brochure from which we booked our very first Broads holiday in August 1984. We were newly married (I was just 18) and we had no money but wanted to get away for a break that didn’t involve too much traveling. I’m not sure why we decided to go boating on the Broads, but I do remember it was very cheap for a three night break over the August Bank Holiday weekend, and so it was duly booked through our local travel agent. I’m very good at nagging people to write down their holiday memories for the website and I keep saying that I must do the same, although our memories are pretty scant. Much to my embarrassment these days, I do remember being reprimanded for speeding by a River Inspector as soon as we left the boatyard! The abiding memory was just how relaxing the weekend was and we were blessed with glorious weather. The boat we had booked for our trip was one of the Fleetline/Seaway class of aft-cockpit Elysian 27′s. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any photos of the boat itself so I don’t know exactly which one it was. There was a single berth in the forward cabin with a washbasin to port and a toilet and shower starboard. In the saloon, opposite the galley, the dinette made up into a double berth which is where we slept. My memories of the boat are born out by Richardson’s own account of the poor condition of the fleet when they took the yard over again. It seemed to me at the time that it was stuck in a time warp and looked as though it still had the fittings, fixtures, curtains and upholstery with which it had been equipped when it was built in the 1960s and was in dire need of some TLC. We had a great weekend though, so much so that we returned to Richardson’s the following June for a longer break aboard one of the Petite Gem’s which was a lovely little boat, and testament to the efforts that I now know were going on to refurbish the fleet.

The Broads Barbeque - FreshFields 1984

Whilst on the subject of the FreshFields brochure, this advert for the Broads Barbeque on the back page caught my eye. Held every Friday night at the Dog Inn at Ludham between June and August, the FreshFields barbecue was advertised as THE place to spend the last night of your boating holiday as it was within easy return distance for handing back the boat the following morning. Live music was provided and the advert encouraged you to go “partying with all your fellow Broads lovers at a typical Broads pub” with tickets priced at £2.75 for adults and £1.75 for children. I’d never heard of the Broads Barbeque before and don’t know how long this ran for …. do you remember attending? I just love these quirky little aspects of Broadland’s history!

Not everyone who visited Broadland over the years came to enjoy a boating holiday. The seaside resorts of Norfolk and Suffolk became hugely popular destinations during the Victorian era when the expansion of the rail networks made travel to the region accessible and affordable. Towns such as Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Cromer saw mass development to provide accommodation and attractions for the burgeoning tourist industry as travellers began to discover the delights of the East Anglian countryside.

The rivers and broads were certainly part of the attraction and many of those who holidayed at the seaside visited the Broadland towns and villages, often taking to the water on one of the many passenger steamers which operated in the area. As both Yarmouth and Lowestoft are “gateways” to the Broads, I like to include them within the remit of Broadland history. Even today, a visit to the seaside is a must for many who book cruising holidays, as is the hire of a dayboat or a trip on one of the modern tour boats for those who stay in land based accommodation on the coast.

At Wroxham Bridge, August 14th 1909 - by courtesy of Stella van der Gucht

I was delighted to receive four photographs last week which were taken at Broadland locations by a family group who holidayed in Great Yarmouth in 1908 and 1909. The photographs belong to Stella van der Gucht and feature her grandparents Lily Child and Harry Caston and she hoped that I may be able to identify the locations seen. The photo on the right is one of the collection and shows the party onboard a passenger boat at Wroxham Bridge. Stella also sent me several postcards of the area which had been bought at the time of those holidays. Through our correspondence about the images, it transpired that Lily had written day to day notes about what they did and the places they visited in 1908 and 1909 on the backs of all of these postcards.

Holiday notes for August 14th 1909 - by courtesy of Stella van der Gucht

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to learn that I was rather excited by this news as the social history aspect of what I do with the archive is the thing which probably fascinates me the most. I always love reading people’s memories of the area and learning about how they holidayed. Naturally, most of the accounts I have on the website are written within living memory so to have something from the Edwardian era is just wonderful! Stella very kindly scanned the backs of the postcards, transcribing her grandmother’s notes as she did so, and I think they will make a very interesting article which will hopefully give a little insight into a turn of the century holiday in Norfolk. Lily and Harry visited many places including St. Olaves, Reedham, Filby & Ormesby Broads, Lowestoft and Cromer to name but a few, but the notes also include mention of what they did in the evening such as attending plays at the Aquarium theatre, concerts on the beach and the circus for example. It is going to take me a while to do the research so that I can include some background information on what they did and where they went, but it will make it’s way on to the website at a later date along with the photos and postcards. The image, above left, shows Lily’s handwritten notes for the day on which the Wroxham photograph was taken.

Wroxham Bridge 1905

She wrote; “Left Yarmouth for Wroxham at 9.20 by boat on the River Bure & Broads. Lovely trip. Arrived Wroxham at 1.20 & left there again for Yarmouth at 2.20. Took photos on the boat. Fine & sunny journey home. Went for walk with Harry by the sea in the evening.” Although she didn’t mention its name, the timings Lily gave for the boat’s departure, along with the evidence seen in the photograph, means that this was almost certainly a trip on the Queen of the Broads passenger steamer. Coincidentally, I happen to have an original advertisement dating from c1900 on the website which details the departure times and prices for the trips offered by the Great Yarmouth and Gorleston Steam Company who owned both the Queen of the Broads and her sister ship the Pride of the Yare. On the right is a postcard which was loaned to me by Trevor Curson which dates from 1905 and shows the Queen of the Broads moored at Wroxham in exactly the same spot that she would have been when Lily and Harry’s photo was taken.

As I said, there will be quite a bit of research to do on this before I can publish the holiday notes on the website, not to mention the backlog of other submissions I have to work through first, but it is a delightful find and I hope it will also be of interest to others. I finally managed to collect my rebuilt computer over the weekend and will now be spending the next couple of weeks trying to get everything up and running on it again so that I can start work on the 60s and 70s photos and slides which were next in line. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! A huge thank you to the Broadland Memories Technical Support Team (that’s Andrew!) for his work over the last few weeks on my PC and for the loan of a temporary replacement. Without him I certainly wouldn’t be able to do what I do with the website and I am eternally grateful!

I’ve upoaded another batch of 20 old postcards to the Broadland Memories website this morning which include six views of Coltishall and fourteen of Wroxham and Hoveton. Once again, there are quite a few Edwardian postcards amongst the collection but there are also images which date from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Holiday Villas on Daisy Broad c1930s

Amongst the new Wroxham additions is the postcard on the left which has puzzled me for a while. It shows three holiday villas which would have looked more at home in the Mediterranean but were actually situated on Daisy Broad, opposite Royall’s boatyard. I’m unsure of the exact date of the card, but the design seems to indicate that it was produced in the 1930s or 1940s. As yet, I haven’t been able to establish when these two storey villas were built but they were certainly very different to the holiday houses and bungalows which were being built elsewhere on the Broads at that time. The names I have been given for them may not have been the originals but they were, from left to right; Kia Manzi, Southernholme and Broadwaters.

The earliest reference that I have for the villas was in the 1958 edition of Hoseason’s boating brochure when Southernholme was listed a 5-6 berth holiday house. The entry on the right shows that the accommodation was spread over two floors with three single beds in two bedrooms plus a “Put-U-Up” double settee in the sun lounge on the upper floor, whilst downstairs there was a single camp bed in the sitting room, a kitchen and a garage. An internal staircase connected the two levels and the listing mentioned that there was an outside toilet alongside the property. In 1958 Southernholme cost between £11 and £23 per week depending on the time of year and was let with a 10ft rowing dinghy and a wireless!

I’ve been told that the properties began to sink, and later brochure evidence seems to confirm that this was indeed the case. Just two years on from the last brochure entry, Southernholme had been remodelled and was being let as a 5 berth, upper floor flat. As the 1960 Hoseason’s entry on the left illustrates, a small extension to the rear of the building had been built to house a staircase and a WC, whilst the single bedroom had been divided to create a small kitchen. Hire terms remained pretty much the same as they had been in 1958. By 1968, the brochure entry for Southernholme showed that the lower floor had been completely removed and opened up, the now one storey property sitting on the stilts which were created by removing the lower walls. It’s neighbour, Broadwaters, was also listed having undergone similar remodelling.

The brochure entry on the right dates from 1972 and clearly shows how the properties had sunk as the upper floors were considerably lower to the ground than in the 1930s photo. Broadwaters had been converted into a 4 berth flat with one double bedroom and a Put-U-Up in the lounge, a kitchen and a bathroom. Both properties cost between £19 and £38 per week and now came equipped with TV’s! I guess it’s a good illustration of the problems which can be encountered by building on what was essentially marshland. Whilst timber built properties can be “jacked up” every few years, the problems which arose with these more substantially built houses were obviously not so easy to rectify. I believe that Southernholme and Broadwaters were rebuilt c1995 and that Kia Manzi was demolished and a new house was built in it’s place, although the original name was retained. I think the original postcard might make an interesting subject for a “Then & Now” photograph later this year but, in the meantime, I would welcome and further information on the history of these unusual villas.

It sounds like a Sherlock Holmes novel but all will become clear! Rather than sit twiddling my thumbs whilst I await the arrival of my rebuilt PC, I decided to work on adding some more old postcards to the Broadland Memories website this week.

It’s been a while since I updated the postcard section – mainly because I have had so many photographs to get onto the website that I just haven’t had the time to sort through the past year’s additions. I’ve still got plenty more to come, but have dug out another 30 for now which I hope to upload to the website later today. West Somerton makes it onto the list with a selection of 5 images dating from between 1908 to the 1930s and there are 12 postcards of Norwich which include riverside scenes and an interesting selection of Edwardian images of the city centre. Finally, there are 13 new additions to the Oulton Broad section dating from 1910 to the 1950s.

The Viscountess Bury at Oulton Broad c1910

Amongst these is the postcard on the left which I’ve actually had on the computer for a couple of years. It shows a heavily laden passenger boat called the Viscountess Bury of which I knew nothing. Google is a wonderful thing and I soon found the information I was looking for, courtesy of the Steam Boat Association register. She was originally built as an electric launch in 1899 by Kirby Bowen at Eel Pie Island, Twickenham for use on the Thames. In 1910 she was bought by a Henry Miller of Oulton Broad who installed an engine and ran her as the passenger boat Viscountess Bury, as seen in the photograph which was presumably taken shortly after her arrival on the Broads.  The Steam Boat register has her listed as being 56 ft 2in in length with a 9ft beam. Clearly there were no health and safety issues in 1910 with the number of passengers you could load on to the top of a vessel of this size!

In 1923 she was sold to Leo Robinson who converted the boat for use as a pleasure cruiser and renamed her Enchantress. The forward, outside well was covered by a canopy and had seating running down either side, from here you entered the saloon which doubled as a sleeping cabin with a double and single berth. At one end of the saloon was a piano, possibly one of the small pianos which were found on the pleasure wherry’s, an example of which can be seen at the Broads Museum in Stalham. A corridor ran along the port side from the saloon leading off from which were three double cabins and a single cabin, each fitted with a wash basin. At the end of the corridor was the bathroom which was equipped with a “self emptying” WC and a full size bath with hot and cold running water. At the rear of the boat was the engine room-cum-crew quarters. The upper deck retained its guard rails and was furnished with wicker armchairs and tables “for having tea.”

1929 Blake's brochure entry for Enchantress

Blakes 1929 entry for Enchantress stated that she was “completely fitted with everything of first-class quality for living and sleeping on board“. The cost of a week’s hire in August 1929 was £30 which included the services of a skipper and a steward. By this time she had been fitted with a new paraffin fueled engine. Enchantress was part of the Leo Robinson fleet at Oulton Broad until the yard closed in the early 1960s – she had given almost 40 years of service as a hire cruiser. In one of the recent additions to the website, John Turner recalled stumbling upon the slumbering Robinson fleet during a holiday in the mid 1960s. On entering the deserted boatshed he said, “I was immediately confronted by the large profile of the sixty foot long Edwardian cruiser, the Enchantress, with her white enamelled hull with its clipper bow and counter stern, varnished wooden superstructure and stanchioned upper sun deck. I climbed aboard her easily from a trestle into her forward well and through the open door I entered her large, richly appointed saloon, the first sight of which must have thrilled her countless new hirers over the years. I worked my way aft past the individual white painted sleeping cabins; each with an electric bell connected to the crews’ quarters, and past a further cabin space housing a bath and marine toilet to the crews’ quarters themselves which also served as the galley and engine room.”

What happened next? Well, in truth, I’m not entirely sure. The entry for her on the Steam Boat Association website tells us that she was sold “as a wreck” in 1971 to a buyer from Cambridge. Where she had been for the intervening years I don’t know. Did she really languish in the old Robinson’s shed for that long? …… was she elsewhere on the Broads? …… or had she already been moved to the Cambridgeshire waterways before 1971?

Enchantress, pictured in December 2011 by courtesy of Fred Dawson

In 1978 Enchantress found another new owner, restoration was completed and she was fitted with a steam engine c1990. There is a photograph of her from 1992 on the SBA page linked to above in which she looked very smart indeed. So where is she now? Well it seems that she changed ownership again and a lot can happen to a wooden boat over the course of 20 years. I hadn’t found any recent references to Enchantress, or seen any other photographs ….. was she still around? My search for further information yesterday led me to the photograph above left which was taken at Kingston-upon-Thames in December 2011. Many thanks to Fred Dawson for giving me permission to use it on here. It’s unmistakably Enchantress and, although she does look somewhat sorry for herself at the moment, it’s wonderful to know that this 113 year old lady is still with us. She epitomised elegance and luxury in her day and it would be nice to think that further restoration is on the cards so that this beautiful, and historic vessel can be returned to her former glory.

If you can help to fill in the gaps in her history, or have any memories of Enchantress then please do get in touch.

I did a series of three blog posts in December 2010 which covered harsh winters in Broadland over the years, beginning with a post on the Big Freeze of winter 1963. The recent cold snap and accompanying snow in Norfolk has prompted me to dig out another photograph from the archives.

Ice floes at Great Yarmouth 1963

The image on the right also dates from 1963 and shows the ice floes at Great Yarmouth in the January of that year. It looks as though it was taken from Haven Bridge and shows the view looking across to North Quay and up towards Breydon Water. The white building on the right was the old Steward & Patteson Brewery off licence and wine stores – the site is now occupied by the Havenbridge House office block. As previously mentioned, the extremely low temperatures caused the rivers and broads to completely freeze over, but up and down the eastern coast of Britain there were reports of the sea itself freezing too. At Herne Bay in Kent the ice apparently stretched for a mile offshore!

I’ve still not seen many photographs of Broadland during the winters of 1947 and 1963 – were you there and did you record the event on camera? If so, or you have any memories of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads during those winters, then I’d love to hear from you.

I’ve added a new photo index page to the website this morning which lists all of the various collections of photographs within the Broadland Memories Gallery pages in chronological order, with brief descriptions of those collections.

It’s something that I have wanted to sort out for a while for two reasons! Firstly, now that there are fixed anchor points at the start of each set of images it will make it easier for me to link to an individual collection when necessary and for others to do the same. Secondly, the photo galleries are now getting quite large and I hope that it might make it easier for anyone who may be searching for photos from particular years to find what they want without having to wade through 40 pages of photos. This is especially true of the 1900-1950 Gallery which now runs over 55 pages and, as new collections are added as they come in rather than in order of year they were taken, it can take a while to go through them all if you are just looking for photos from the 1930s for example.

When I first created the website and divided it into the various eras I decided to have a general 1900-1950 section rather than splitting it down into the individual decades like the later photo galleries and personal memories etc. At the time, I honestly never expected to receive as many pre-1950 images as I have! I’ve toyed with the idea of splitting it down into the individual decades but it would involve an awful lot of work as I would have to start from scratch with the galleries again, not to mention having to redesign the main archive directory to accommodate them! The photo index is a compromise, but I hope that it will prove to be a useful addition to the website.

I’ve come to a bit of a full stop with the website until I get my own computer back. I’m hoping that I can collect it this coming weekend …. weather permitting! The next collection of photographs I have to work on are a set of slides from the 1960s and 1970s. There are some weird and whacky color casts to correct and I’m reluctant to make a start on doing that until I have my PC back and can make sure that I’m happy with the monitor settings. I will try to dig out a few odds and ends to post on the blog in the meantime!

My appeal of a few weeks ago for more personal memories of working or holidaying on the Broads has already had some positive responses. A couple of people have contacted me to say that they are going to try to write something down for me and earlier this week I received a very lovely account of a sailing holiday taken by two young lads in 1954.

As I was working on a collection of photographs from the 1950s this week I decided that it would be nice to get the new holiday memories on at the same time. As there were no accompanying photographs with the tale, it was a fairly straightforward process to get it laid out in the web design software I use and it only took a couple of hours of my time at most. “Memories of my First Broads Holiday in 1954” was submitted by Alan Clarke and is an account of his week on the yacht Bright which was hired from J.Loynes & Sons Ltd. of Wroxham. Accompanied by his school friend Bernard Burns, the pair (who were huge Arthur Ransome fans) set out on their own “Coot Club” adventure having had no previous experience of sailing. It is a lovely addition to the archive and I look forward to receiving more personal recollections of Broadland holidays. As I mentioned in that previous post, I would also dearly love to have some memories from people who actually lived and worked on the Broads too.

Along with uploading Alan’s memories this morning, the Aylott family collection of photos of holidays taken on the Broads during the 1950s were also added to the website. I still have photographs from the 1960s, 70s and 80s to work on over the coming months from the Aylott family, along with several other collections of images from the same eras which have been submitted over the last year. Last week I also updated the article on the history of the pleasure wherry Dragon after recieving some memories of her from the early 60s and a new photograph from Vaughan Ashby. I’m now continuing to work on the set of 1936 photographs, from which I posted a couple of sneak previews a while ago – those should hopefully be uploaded to the website next week. I will then be moving on to the 1960s!

Work on rebuilding my computer is progressing well and I hope to have it back soon. It’s been a little bit awkward having to work on two computers over the last month, collecting website emails on my netbook but working on the website on the loaned PC, but hopefully I have managed to keep up! I am so grateful to have been able to continue uploading new additions to the main website but it will be nice to have everything back on one computer again. Unfortunately, it will result in a brief hiatus where the website is concerned whilst I get everything loaded back on and up and running again, but I’ll try to get it done as quickly as I can.

If boats could talk then the wherry Albion would certainly have some interesting tales to tell. Built by William Brighton at his yard on Lake Lothing for the Bungay maltsters W.D. and A.E. Walker and launched in 1898, Albion has been plying her trade on the waterways of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads for 114 years, serving a succession of masters during her lifetime.

The Broadland of 1898 was a very different place to that which we know today. The boat hire industry was still in it’s fledgling stages with a very short summer season, catering largely for well-to-do visitors who were attracted by the guide books written by the likes of George Christopher Davies and Ernest Suffling. The one constant on the rivers, year in year out, had been the trading wherries.

Wherries crossing Breydon Water c1905

Built specifically for the inland waterways of Norfolk and Suffolk, wherries provided the means to transport all manner of goods from village to village and from port to port. Albion was just one of many which had been built over the years to haul cargo and it was a hard life for both wherry and crew. As the rail network began to sprawl its way across the region there became less of a demand to transport goods by river and the number of trading wherries began to decline. Presumably the Bungay maltsters, who already owned a small fleet of wherries, must have felt that it still provided a very cost effective method of shipping raw materials in and products out as Albion was duly commissioned and put to work.

Fast forward fifty years and Albion (who had by now been renamed Plane) was in a sorry state. Having been stripped of her mast and sailing gear she was being used as a lighter by the Colman’s factory at Norwich in 1949. The once familiar black sails had completely disappeared from the waterways, the few remaining traders had suffered the same indignity of being stripped down and one by one were coming to the end of their lives. A few people saw the urgent need to preserve at least one of these traditional Broadland craft and the Norfolk Wherry Trust was formed. Plane was identified as being a suitable candidate to return to sailing condition. The wherry was secured, a new mast was made as part of a major refit and her original name of Albion was restored. On October 13th 1949 Albion made her first voyage under sail once more, from Great Yarmouth to Norwich, and she was soon put back to work carrying cargo.

Albion pictured at Great Yarmouth c1914

A potted history of the trust and Albion herself can be found on the  Norfolk Wherry Trust website, along with details on chartering Albion, membership information and merchandise available for sale. Over the last couple of years the trust have also been updating the site four times a year with some fascinating photos and documents from their archives. Some of the highlights include newsletters from the 1950s, correspondence from local businesses including a 1951 letter from the Norwich branch of the Co-Op in which they decline the offer of Albion’s services to deliver goods to the store by river and another from R.J. Reads flour mill detailing cargoes carried by Albion for them in 1952. Other items include a scan of the instructions for crews of the Breydon wherry race of 1952 during which she was famously dis-masted. Just follow the links on the right of that page for the various quarterly additions. Also of great interest is the “Past Journals” section in which you can find a selection of scanned copies of the trusts quarterly journals “The Wherry” and “Quant” from the last 25 years. There are some fascinating articles and photos hidden away in those and I shall look forward to future additions. I’ve dipped into the Broadland Memories archives to dig out the postcard above right which was postmarked to 1914 and shows Albion moored at Great Yarmouth. Her skipper at this time was Jack Powley who may well have been onboard when this photograph was taken as you can see smoke rising from the cuddy’s chimney.

Albion is one of the most iconic symbols of The Broads and under the care of the trust will hopefully continue to sail for many more years to come. A more detailed history can be found in the book “Albion – The Story of the Norfolk Trading Wherry” which was written by Martin Kirby for the Norfolk Wherry Trust and published by Jarrolds in 1998 (ISBN 0-7117-1027-9). Copies can be found on sale at various outlets throughout Broadland. The East Anglian Film Archive recently uploaded a short film of Albion to their website. Dating from 1952, the film shows Albion at Great Yarmouth with her skipper Jack Cates and includes footage of her mast breaking during the Breydon wherry race of that year.

I’ve posted links to a few old cine films of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads from YouTube on here but my latest trawl through the recent uploads has uncovered and absolute gem! Filmed on colour 8mm cine film, “Broadland Holiday 1954″ is a wonderful record of a family boating holiday on the motor cruiser Harbinger.

The film is around26 minutes long and includes some fabulous footage taken on the rivers, which of course includes lots of lovely wooden cruisers, and covers a large part of both the northern and southern rivers. Potter Heigham, Thurne, Horning, Coltishall and Wroxham are all seen (including some great street scenes at Wroxham) along with film of the seafront and yacht station at Great Yarmouth. Moving on to the southern rivers the family pass Cantley on their way up to Norwich (again some lovely footage of the city) and also visit St.Olaves and Oulton Broad. The fact that this is all in colour really brings 1950s Broadland to life ….. absolutely stunning!

Following on from my last post which featured a photograph taken at the boatyard of C.J. Broom & Sons of Brundall in 1954 I thought I’d make mention of another interesting book which I was given for Christmas.

Broom Boats – A History of Quality and Innovation was published last year and is a largely pictorial potted history of the company with a forward written by Martin Broom. There are some lovely photographs of the boatyard and the range of craft which they have produced over the years with classics such as the timber-built Admiral, Commander, Captain and Cadet classes featuring heavily. The book continues through the introduction of GRP cruisers such as the Broom 30, right up to the sea going 455′s and 370′s which are being built today.

The Albert of Blofield pictured by John Chesney in 1977

My main interest lies in the old “woodies” of course and they were certainly built with undeniable quality and style. Having had the great privilege of crewing on an Admiral in recent years I will admit to being slightly biased, but they were built with such skilled craftsmanship and still turn heads today. One of the boats featured in the book is The Albert (pictured on the left by John Chesney in 1977) which was built for one of the directors of the Norwich confectionery manufacturer John Mackintosh & Co. Designed by Arnott Fowler and built by Brooms, The Albert was launched in 1965 and has an illustrious claim to fame having been chosen to ferry the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh from Horning Staithe for the opening of the new conservation centre at Ranworth in November 1976.

More information about the book can be found on the Broom Owners Club website and it is available to purchase through them or from the reception at Broom Boats Ltd.

I’m quite pleased that I have been able to make good progress on the backlog of submissions to the archive over the last couple of weeks. It’s been fortunate that I’ve been able to put in two full days this week plus a couple of afternoons over the weekend to work on the website and, as mentioned in the last blog post, finally uploaded the 1940s Corinthian photos and cruising log. Some more new additions were uploaded yesterday evening in the form of a lovely collection of black & white photographs from the 1960s and accompanying memories from John Turner.

Boarding "Droleen" at C.J.Broom & Sons in 1954

I shall now be turning my attention to a set of photographs from the 1950s which were sent to me by Rob Aylott. The collection covers two of his fathers holidays on the Broads, the first in 1954 with two friends on the motor cruiser Droleen which was hired from C.J.Broom & Sons of Brundall. The photograph on the right shows two of the lads boarding the boat at Brooms boatyard with some of the rest of the fleet lined up behind them. Droleen was originally one of a class of five which included Merleen, Rosaleen, Maureen and Eileen which were built by Brooms between 1929 and 1933. After the Second World War just Droleen and Merleen remained in the fleet. These three berth cruisers were 22ft in length with an 8ft beam – I don’t have a copy of the 1954 brochure, but in 1952 Blake’s were advertising her with a hire cost of between £17 10 shillings and £25 10 shillings per week which included a dinghy.

The second holiday was taken in 1958 with Rob’s mother and father being joined by two other couples on Broadland Heron, one of the Broadland Swan class from Ripplecraft & Co. Ltd. of Somerleyton. Rob also sent me some photographs of further holidays in the 1970s and 1980s – more on those will follow!

Update 18th January 2012 – The old adage of “look before you leap” sprung to mind this week as I started working on the Aylott photos as I now believe that the photograph above was actually taken at A.G.Ward’s boatyard at Thorpe St.Andrew. It serves as a reminder to me that you can’t always believe what the captions say, and it’s not until I start studying photographs a little more closely when I begin remastering them for display on the website that I notice little details which are overlooked on a quick glance through.

The motor cruiser Droleen pictured at Acle in 1954

Although labelled as “picking up the boat at Brundall” I wasn’t entirely sure that the background looked right to have been Brooms yard. I then noticed that another photograph in the collection showed the lads at the rear of a cruiser which displayed the partial name of “Eagle” on the transom. A little research led me to believe that there were in fact photos from an entirely separate holiday aboard the cruiser Sea Eagle which was part of A.G.Ward’s fleet at Thorpe. Indeed one of that class, quite probably Sea Eagle herself, is featured elsewhere in the collection. One obvious clue to the photograph above not showing them boarding Droleen is that Droleen was painted white and the boat above is clearly varnished – further study reveals details on the boat which also tie in with it actually being Sea Eagle. Rob is now quizzing his father Harry to try and jog his memory on the matter.  Just to tie the post back in with Brooms, the photograph above left shows Droleen moored at Acle Bridge in 1954, with Curtis Stores seen in the background.

I mentioned in the last blog post that I had managed to get the website up and running on another PC which had kindly been loaned to me whilst mine undergoes its necessary upgrades. It took a little while longer to sort out than I initially thought but it all seems to be working fine now at my end and I have been able to start working on the new submissions again.

At the end of November I had begun working on a collection of photographs and an accompanying holiday log from 1949 – those photos and the “Log of Corinthian” were finally uploaded to the Broadland Memories website over the weekend. The log is a wonderful read and, having been written at the time of the holiday in June 1949, gives a fascinating insight into cruising on the Broads during this era. I love reading these tales and memories of past holidays and from the feedback received so do others – it’s a popular section of the archive! Not only are these reminiscences entertaining, they often provoke a real sense of nostalgia in people who first visited the Broads in their youth. As I have said in the past, these written accounts help to build up an incredible picture of life and leisure in the area and it is so important to record this aspect of social history.

I hope to begin work on another set of memories for the archive this week, this time from the 1960s, along with a set of accompanying photographs courtesy of John Turner but it has brought to my attention the fact that the personal memories section of the archive is still quite small. I’d love to expand this area of the website and include the recollections of people who actually lived and worked in Broadland along with those who holidayed here. People often tell me that they don’t feel confident enough to write down what they do remember, that they don’t have a “way with words”, or that what they write wouldn’t be interesting enough – I say that it doesn’t matter how you write things down! It can just be the jotting down of a few memories here and there rather than attempting to do a full blown holiday tale and it doesn’t matter if you struggle with spelling or structuring as I can help with that when I come to add them to the website. Each era of the personal memories section has what I called “Collected Memories” pages to which I add the shorter snippets which people send to me. When I’m sent photographs I always ask for as much information as people can remember about those too so it can be included in the captioning for the gallery pages. People say that they are often surprised at how much comes back to them when they do start to write things down. If you have memories of working on the Broads, holidaying in the area, or have old ships logs written by your parents or grandparents then please do get in touch!

Another possible future project for the archive is the addition of audio recordings of memories of Broadland, the idea being that I would actually go out and talk to people about their recollections of living and working in the area and then make edited versions available to download from the website (with their permission). It’s a method that seems to be increasingly used by archivists these days as it’s often easier to prompt peoples’ memories via conversation rather than trying to get them to write it down. I can see it may well provide some fascinating history and would be another imporant way of preserving the past for future generations as I would of course archive all of the recordings. With this in mind, I was given a digital voice recorder for Christmas which I hope to try out soon. I’ve not looked into the logistics of making audio recordings available through the website yet and it may not be possible for me to do so with the setup I use, but I would at least be able to transcribe the conversations into written articles for the website if that turns out to be the case. As I said, it’s just a possible thought for the future at the moment!