The Wherryman’s Way – Berney Arms to Reedham

The Berney Arms mill overlooks the southern end of Breydon Water, a lone sentinel at the confluence of the rivers Yare and Waveney. It shares its name name with the nearby hostelry, one of Britain’s most remote public houses, but the tiny hamlet of Berney Arms was once home to several families and had previously been the site of a large cement and brick works. I paid a visit by train recently and decided to walk the five or so miles back to Reedham along the Wherryman’s Way.

The Berney Arms halt is a request stop and the short rail journey from Reedham station is of the blink and you’ll miss it kind. It’s the smallest station in Great Britain with just one platform and once had a rather lovely signal box which can now be found at the Mangapps Railway Museum in Burnham-on-Crouch. The name Berney Arms derives from the former landowner, Thomas Trench Berney, who sold some of his marshland to the Yarmouth and Norwich Railway Company who constructed the rail line here which opened in 1844. Berney sold the land with the agreement that a station would be permanently maintained at Berney Arms.

berney_01Stepping off the train and heading across the field towards the mill, the wind was blowing a gale across the marshes. One gets a very real sense of isolation with little to remind you that this was once a close knit community with several cottages and a thriving cement works and sawmill. There were a pair of semi-detached station cottages here, one of which also served as a ticket office, waiting room and Post Office. These were demolished around forty years ago. Sheila Hutchinson’s Berney Arms Past & Present (sadly now out of print) is probably the best source of written history of the area and brings together a collection of old photographs and memories of rural life here. Alongside a wealth of historical facts and figures gleaned from official records and old newspapers, Sheila’s book also gives a very personal insight into life at Berney Arms as she grew up here, living in the hamlet from the late 1940s until the 1960s.  Life could be harsh, there was no electricity and no running water, but there was clearly a strong community bond between the residents of the eleven dwellings. The postcard below dates from c1910 and shows not only the mill but also the group of cottages that stood nearby which were demolished during in the 1960s. You can see the remains of the former cement works to the right of the mill too.

berney10_millBerney Arms High Mill is one of the tallest mills in the county and was originally built to grind clinker for the cement works which stood beside it. It is believed to have been built c1865 by the Stolworthy Millwrights of Great Yarmouth but replaced an earlier tower mill on the site which was also associated with the cement works.

berney1821_advert01There is no evidence a cement works on this site on Faden’s 1797 map of Norfolk but Bryant’s map 0f 1826 clearly shows kilns, a mill and the public house here. The cement works, mill, Ashtree Farm and public house were all owned by the Berney family, along with the surrounding land, and the cottages seen above were presumably occupied by workers associated with the works at times during the 19th century. The advert seen on the left dates from 1821 when the whole enterprise was available to let and it gives a good indication of just how extensive the works here were. Mud dredged from Breydon or Oulton Broad would be mixed with chalk and baked in the kilns to form clinker which was then ground by the mill to produce the cement. According to Sheila Hutchinson, the cement works ceased to operate c1880, when it was then under the ownership of the Burgh Castle Cement Company. After 1883 the mill was used solely for drainage. Some of the buildings and kilns associated remained for many years, but the last remnants of the kilns were demolished c1950.  The mill is currently owned by English Heritage. It’s just a shame that there seems to be no (or at least very little) public access to the mill at the moment as I would have loved to have had a look round. The postcard below dates from the mid 1940s and shows an unidentified trading wherry with the mill in the background.

berney_40s_wherryInterestingly, Sheila mentions that the remains of four wherries lie near to the new Breydon pump house, scuttled here to help protect the estuary wall. These are believed to have been some of those which were owned by the Burgh Castle Cement Company. Roy Clark’s Black Sailed Traders lists seven wherries as having been under the company’s ownership. The 22 ton Britannia is recorded as having been broken up at Southwold in 1929. The other six were Emma/Intrepid (a very old, square sterned wherry), Fanny, Frank, Herbert, Mary and Morton.

berney_milllandscapeIt was midday when our train arrived at Berney Arms and it would have been rude not to pop into the pub for a beer or two before heading back to Reedham along the Wherryman’s Way.  There has been a good bit of media coverage recently surrounding the current planning application by the owner to convert the pub into a private house. It’s a controversial subject, and not one for me to get involved with on here, but it would be a shame to lose this historic Broadland watering hole. Having been featured on the local news a couple of days before our visit, the pub was proving to be quite an attraction over the weekend. With trains running more frequently on the Sunday, the bar was positively heaving by the time we left.  I can only hope that the interest and support being shown continues and that the Berney Arms can survive as a public house. The latest news is that the Broads Authority have refused planning permission for change of use and the pub has been listed as an Asset of Community Value. I fear it’s a saga that will continue to run on for a good while yet.

berney_04Shown on Bryant’s 1826 map of Norfolk, the Berney Arms public house was once the haunt of wherrymen, wildfowlers, fishermen and smugglers. With no road access, except for deliveries, it’s easy to see why the pub can be rather quiet outside of the main holiday season, but it provides safe mooring whilst waiting for the tide to cross Breydon Water and possesses a rather quirky charm that’s hard not to like.

In his 1902 book Broadland Sport, Nicholas Everitt gave a rather harsh critique of the Berney Arms “a marsh tavern, unlike any other inn, because of its peculiar situation and its uninteresting surroundings. Queer Company one meets with within its smoke-begrimed walls, and many a good punting yarn the old benches could tell if they had but tongue. The quarters are not to be recommended, although the wildfowler may be glad at times to avail himself of whatever poor hospitality the inn can afford. In the ‘good old days’ many a cargo of contraband goods found a temporary resting-place here; the situation being most auspicious for its distribution.

In Wild Life on a Norfolk Estuary, published in 1907, the Great Yarmouth naturalist and author Arthur Patterson described the Berney Arms as; “a quaint, cheerless alehouse, that draws more than half a barrel a fortnight, and supplies any who ask for them with a jug of coffee and rich, sweet cheese and bread, or allows the visitor to munch his own refreshments. A chat with the natives, and the smelters one sees here, is always a source of interest, and not infrequently of amusement.” In The Cruise of the Walrus, Patterson also gave an interesting account of visiting the pub in the 1870s: “.. for a long time the big room was used on a Sunday for preaching purposes, the ‘local’ parsons being ferried over from Burgh Castle in a dilapidated smack’s boat, providing the weather was not too wild, when a drum-up was made of the five houses comprising the wildly scattered hamlet. Two of us youths, one stormy Sunday, walked with old John Bitton, a noted Methodist, to Burgh and waited for an hour on the salting for two Berneyites to ferry us over. But the wildness affrighted them, and when they had summoned up courage at length, big waves broke over the boat. Only two natives attended the service, yet the venerable John went through with it; and the gale so increased, that at nightfall we had to stumble and wade over the sodden marshes, and down the railway line, home, the rain beating in our faces all the way.”

Much has changed at the Berney Arms since the early years of the 20th century. The pub lost its licence in 1909 following a tragic incident in which three men drowned after leaving the pub, their boat capsizing whilst  trying to row back to Burgh Castle. Searching back through 19th century newspaper reports, this seemed to have been one in a long line of rather unfortunate accidents involving boats and wherries at Berney Arms. Some of these make for rather horrific reading. Having lost it’s licence, the building was used as a private house by several families over the next 30 years. Sheila Hutchinson writes that the building had become rather dilapidated by the time it was eventually sold in 1947 for the princely sum of £40. The new owners proceeded to rip up the floorboards to repair their boat and pulled down the doors to use as firewood. It was sold again in 1950 and repairs were finally carried out. With yet another new owner in 1952, the Berney Arms opened as a a private club before gaining a full licence once again in 1955. Subsequent owners have included Ken Barnes who moved on to open a well known boatyard at Wroxham in the 1960s, selling the inn to Bob Manning whose legendary parties at the pub attracted popstars and entertainers of the day including Freddie & the Dreamers, Jimmy Tarbuck, Adam Faith and The Searchers.

berney_interiorWith it’s rough wood panelling giving the interior an almost ship like feel, the pub definitely has a character all of its own. Settling down with a beer in the snug bar, it’s quite easy to  imagine the customers of old … the wherrymen with their weather worn faces, huddled on benches in the shadows, trading yarns with the Breydon smelters photographed so beautifully by Peter Henry Emerson c1890.

emerson_1880s_breydonsmeltersLeaving the pub we made our way back past the mill, continuing along the Wherryman’s Way passing Ashtree Farm, now owned by the RSPB and used by it’s staff. The wind was still blowing a hoolie out there. You are extremely exposed up on the footpath which follows the course of the River Yare all the way to Reedham and we decided to take some respite from the elements at the halfway point. Polkey’s Mill sits near to Cadge’s Mill and Seven Mile House (so named because of it’s distance from Great Yarmouth). Not necessarily obvious from the river is the earlier, and now derelict North Mill which sits further back on the marshes behind Seven Mile House. Thought to have been constructed during the 1830s, North Mill was last used c1900

northmill_01As seems to have been the tradition with Broadland drainage mills, both Polkey’s and Cadges’s Mill are believed to have derived their names from the marshmen who looked after them. Cadge’s Mill (seen below on the right) has also been known as Kedge’s, Batchie’s and Stimpson’s Mill over the years.

cadgesmill_01Cadge’s Mill was built c1870s and was used to drain the marshes up until 1941 when it was replaced with diesel pumps. Left to become derelict over the next four decades, emergency works to make the mill watertight were carried out by Norfolk County Council in the 1980s enabling a new electric pump to be installed inside it. In 2006, the mill was given a new cap and, hopefully, it’s future is now secure.

polkey'smill_01Also known as Reedham Hall Level Mill and Reedham Marshes South Mill, Polkey is thought to have been the nickname of one of the Thaxter family who were marshmen and farmers here in the late 19th century. A farmhouse stood alongside the mill until the 1950s/60s when, like the cottages at Berney Arms, it was demolished.  Faden’s 1797 map shows a mill on this spot but the tower is believed to have been rebuilt and heightened during the late 19th century. It is unusual in having sails which turn clockwise and it too was used up until 1941 when new diesel engines were installed. Owned by Norfolk County Council, The Norfolk Windmills Trust took over management of the mill in 1981, restoration being completed in 2006. The building in front of the mill housed a steam engine which was installed in 1880. Powered by a coal-fired boiler., the engine drove a turbine which assisted the mill in draining the marshes when there was no wind. The mill and pump house are open to the public on certain days of the year, although sadly not when we visited, but it was interesting to have a look round none the less.

We climbed back up to the footpath and waked the last two miles back to Reedham. It’s an interesting trip to make, even though we were rather windswept by the end of it. It was only polite to call into the Ship Inn for a much deserved pint before making our way back to our starting point at Reedham Ferry campsite.

 

 

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