Since the dawn of the boat hire industry, advertising has always been key to promoting both the Norfolk Broads as a holiday destination and the various boatbuilders and hire yards to prospective visitors. In the modern world advertising is a global, multi media and sometimes cut-throat affair but back in the day things moved at a different pace.
If you’d have flipped to the back of George Christopher Davies “Handbook to the rivers and broads of Norfolk & Suffolk” or one of the similar guide books to the region in the late 19th century, you would have found adverts for local boat builders and lists of some of the pubs, hotels, yachting stations and boatyards from which one could procure a yacht or a wherry for a week or more. The example for John Loynes at Wroxham, seen on the right, dates from 1897. The scope for promoting wares and services was considerably smaller back then. Along with adverts in tourist guides, newspapers and magazines, some boat builders took scale models along to exhibitions to advertise their boats to both potential buyers and holidaymakers and Loynes advert makes mention of the fact that he had won a gold medal at the International Fisheries Exhibition in London in 1883 for “YACHTS and BOATS best suited for the Rivers and Broads of Norfolk.” In 1906, Harry Blake was so enamoured with the area after holidaying on the Norfolk Broads that he approached Ernest Collins at Wroxham, promising to increase his holiday bookings if Collins would allow Blake to become his agent in London. Advertising initially in the Daily Mail for the first year, Blake issued his first printed “Catalogue of Yachts, Wherries and Boats of All Descriptions for Hire” on the Norfolk Broads in 1908. Whilst the first edition contained vessels solely for hire from Ernest Collins, his success prompted other boatyards to sign on to his books and H. Blake & Co’s agency was born.
As the interest in boating on the Broads grew during the first quarter of the 20th century, so the number of hire boats and holidaymakers increased. The introduction and development of motor cruisers brought yet more new visitors and Blake’s Yachting List expanded accordingly. Developments in photography and printing methods meant that advertisements became larger and glossier, but by the early 1930s a new medium was being used by Harry Blake to extol the delights of a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads.
The advancement in cinematography during the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a number of British film companies produce newsreels, short documentaries, travelogues and lifestyle films which were shown in cinemas. British Pathe were probably the most well known and they made a number of Norfolk Broads related films over the years. You’ll find quite a few dating from the 1930s to the 1960s on the British Pathe website and I ‘ve gathered a good few of them together within the playlists on the Broadland Memories YouTube channel. There are far too many interesting Pathe films to list but they include the charming “Eve on the Broads Version 2” which features the actress Ivy Duke and her husband Guy Newall onboard their pleasure wherry Arcadia in 1933.
Blake’s boating brochures contained useful hints and tips and a guide to cruising the Broads, and various publications were also produced in the 1920s including guides written by both Leo and Jack Robinson who had successful hire yards in Oulton Broad. As cine cameras and projectors became more readily available, Harry Blake saw film as an ideal way to promote boating holidays. His 1933 Yachting List advertised two 9mm cine films which were available for loan to prospective clients – “Cruising on the Broads” and “Broadland“. A number of similar promotional films were produced by both Blake’s and Hoseasons over the next four decades. Very few of these are available to view online but you can watch the wonderfully light-hearted “Broadland Adventure” via the British Film Institute website. Released by Blake’s in 1954, it follows an older couple enjoying week’s holiday on one of the Starlight class of motor cruiser from Herbert Woods as they discover the joys of boating, the sights and the attractions of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. Fast forwarding 20 years, the East Anglian Film Archive website includes the 1971 Hoseasons promotional film “Let’s Get Away From It All” which portrays a family holiday on the Harvey Eastwood motor cruiser Santa Caterina (which oddly starts from Loddon rather than the home yard at Brundall) plus their range of riverside and seaside holiday homes and houseboats. Highlights include the church and old Granary Stores at Ranworth, powerboat racing at Oulton Broad and a glimpse of the Golden Galleon passenger boat.
Let’s Get Away From It All was very much an updated version of the latest addition to the Broadland Memories Archive. In 1960, Hoseasons commissioned the M.F. Unit to produce “Broadland Panorama“, a 23 minute long guide to the range of Hoseasons holidays which were available in Norfolk, concentrating predominantly with boating on the Broads. It’s an absolute joy to watch, a Broadland before my time which shows so much that has gone, but it’s a film which never the less encapsulates the appeal and all that I hold dear about the Norfolk Broads today. The film starts with the family’s arrival at the boatyard in Oulton Broad in a brand new Vauxhall PA Velox. Their boat for the week was what would have been the flagship of Hoseasons fleet, the 38ft, 8 berth Mayqueen (renamed Caribbean for this film), which cost between £33/10 and £66 to hire in 1960.
“Lenny” takes the family on their trial run before they are let loose on the River Waveney. There are so many highlights as the family cover both the northern and southern rivers, pausing to enjoy the town of Beccles, the Roman remains at Burgh Castle, great Yarmouth seafront and Pleasure Beach, yacht and powerboat racing at Oulton Broad, refuelling at Bridgecraft and shopping at Curtis Stores at Acle Bridge. Local crafts and skills such as boatbuilding thatching and flowers made from feathers at Pettitts of Reedham are seen and the virtues of a number of riverside pubs and hotels are also promoted! We get a glimpse of the famous boat bar at Ranworth Maltsters, Horning Ferry Inn and the Lord Nelson at Reedham plus dinner dances at a local village hall (the Swan pavilion at Horning perhaps?). As a filmic version of their holiday brochure houseboats, and riverside bungalows fitted out with all the mod cons are also covered before the sunset finale back at Oulton Broad.
Sadly, there is very little in the way of credits or information available about Broadland Panorama. I don’t know who the actors were but wonder what happened to little “Fiona” who I’m guessing must be around 60 now. If you’re out there and happen to stumble across this blog then please do get in touch as I would love to know what you remember about the filming of this.
I happen to have a copy of the 1960 Hoseasons brochure within my own collection and it’s interesting to note just how similar the information in the film is to that which was given in the brochure. There were 38 boatyards on the books that year with familiar names such as Royall’s, Faircraft and Summer Craft at Wroxham and Bridgecraft of Acle. There were also quite a few long gone hire yards including F.B. Wilds of Horning, Bowell and Harper at Oulton Broad, E. Piggen at Hickling and W.H. Golling at Womack. The brochure boasted that they had the “most modern and best equipped fleet in the country with over 90% of craft being post war with many built in the last 5 years.” In 1960, Hoseasons introduced their Rain Free Guarantee which promised that “should it rain more than 0.1 inches during any day of your vacation taken in April or May we will refund that day’s hire charge in full.” Broadland Caravettes – VW Camper Vans – were also newly available for hire 1960, a venture which lasted for just one season. There were adverts for some of the many pubs, hotels and village stores around Broadland too.
It listed family attractions including powerboat racing at Oulton, theatres and the beaches at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft and “the tang of wholesome Norfolk beer drunk in good company in a riverside inn.” The introduction page contained the perfect enticement for a Broadland holiday: “If you’re fed up with bus queues and smog-laden air; hurrying crowds and cafeteria lunches; if you’re tired of having your life regulated by an inexorable time table – then a Norfolk Broads holiday is everything you need.” Whilst smog may not be an issue these days and works cafeterias and largely a thing of the past, it’s a selling pitch that still works today.
Broadland Panorama gives you a pretty good idea what to expect from a modern motor cruiser of the era, but I’ll leave you with one last image from the 1960 Hoseasons brochure intended to illustrate just how up to date their boats were. Now where did I put that booking form …..
My sincere thanks once again to Video Impact of Loddon for assisting the Broadland Memories Archive by digitizing this and other cine film without charge. It is a very kind gesture for which I am extremely grateful. A massive thank you too to everyone who has made a donation to Broadland Memories over the last year which has enabled me to continue to purchase and give public access via the website to such wonderful (and important) examples of Broadland’s history such as this and other cine films, ephemera and photographic collections.
