I’ve spent the last few weeks working on the Edwardian Great Yarmouth holiday notes and photographs which I mentioned in this post from February. The notes were quite brief and it’s been rather time consuming trying to find more information about what the Caston family did and where they went during their holidays in 1908 and 1909.
Ernest Caston, Florrie Jones and Lily Child pictured at St. Olaves in August 1909
The notes were, however, very interesting and certainly gave a feel of what holidaying in the town was like at the turn of the 19th/20th century, but I felt they needed to be accompanied by some explanatory information which would hopefully provide further insight on their visits. As well as being a popular seaside resort, Great Yarmouth is of course a Broadland town, and ever since people have been hiring boats it has been a favourite stopping point for those on a holiday cruise too. The resulting article will, I hope, be of interest to some and it includes several of the photographs which were taken by Harry Caston at the time along with postcards from the same era which illustrate some of the places the family visited. Notes from an Edwardian Seaside Holiday was uploaded to the main Broadland Memories website yesterday and a selection of the photographs were also added to the 1900-1950 Gallery pages. One of those photographs, dated to August 1909, can be seen above right and I believe that this was taken at St. Olaves. It took me a little while to fathom it out, but on closer study the main clue can be seen on the far right where you can just about make out the approach to a rail bridge. I believe that this was the old Haddiscoe rail swing bridge, the piers of which are still in situ on the River Waveney, and you can also see a huge plume of steam as a train approaches. To get this view, I think the family would have been standing on the spit of land which lies between the River Waveney and the New Cut, with Herringfleet in the background.
The notes and photographs are a lovely addition to the archive and show holidaying in the region at this time from a slightly different angle, although many of the places they visited would also have been destinations for those on a boating holiday. Links to the article and the photos can be found via the “What’s New” page on the Broadland Memories website.
