Hearts Cruisers turnaround day 1955

I recently had the great pleasure of meeting and talking to Vaughan Ashby whose parents owned Hearts Cruisers at Thorpe St Andrew after the Second World War. Vaughan has very kindly given me permission to share some of the family’s cine films of the Norfolk Broads on Broadland Memories and also offered to add some descriptive commentary and memories of the boatyard to accompany the films.

I’ve now edited the first of these which dates from 1955 and was put together by Vaughan’s mother, Eileen, to illustrate a typical turnaround day at Hearts Cruisers. It’s a wonderful piece of Broads history, brought to life by Vaughan’s memories, and it gives a real insight into post war era boating holidays and the day to day running of a hire fleet back then. The attention to detail, the pride which went into maintaining the boats and the importance placed on customer service is clearly evident.

John Hart established one of the earliest boat hire yards on the Broads around 1878 when he became the licensee of the Thorpe Gardens public house and began to hire out rowing boats and cabin yachts from there. In the mid 1880s the business was moved across the river to Thorpe Island which had been created when the rail line was built in the 1840s – a new cut had been dug to divert the River Yare to avoid the low rail bridges. When John Hart died in 1898, his son George took over the running of the business and when he died in 1927 the business was continued by one of his sons, Geoffrey, under the name of G.Hart & Sons. The yard was put up for sale after the war, a share of which was subsequently bought by Commander Ron Ashby who was looking for a new venture. He renamed it Hearts Cruisers and was later able to purchase the company outright. As housing in Norfolk was scarce at the time, Commander Ashby purchased an ex naval MGB (motor gun boat) which was towed to Thorpe St Andrew and fitted out as the family home, the Commander, his wife and six month old son, Vaughan, living in the houseboat “Misty Morn” in the meantime.  The bilges had to be filled with water to enable the gun boat to be dragged beneath the low rail bridge. “Morning Flight” was intended to be a temporary home whilst a bungalow was built on the island for the family, the idea being that the gunboat would then be let out as a houseboat, but it became their home for the next 41 years.

ashby48_heartsyardThe photograph above shows the Hearts boatyard in 1948. The gunboat “Morning Flight” is being refitted on the left,  with “Misty Morn” seen to the right of it. Little remained of the original Harts fleet, just five boats, the rest had perished having been requisitioned and moored out on Surlingham and Rockland Broads during the war to prevent enemy sea planes landing. The boat sheds on the island had also been bombed but they were able to claim damages to cover the cost of rebuilding.  The boat basin was dug out and large gardens were created after an area of the island was cleared of trees. Ashby planned to build one new boat every year, intending to increase the fleet to 15 boats although Vaughan explained that this ended up being 18 boats which, due to inflation, were still not earning a great deal of money for the business.

On the other side of the river at Thorpe St Andrew, Jenners had grouped together with the neighbouring A.G.Wards yard at Thorpe in the late 1950s, purchasing the Town House Guest House and effectively having one large yard with all boats flying under the Jenners flag. During the mid 1960s they also began acquiring boats and purchasing other fleets from yards including Dawncraft, Pegg Marine, Wards, Wilsons and Windboats. In 1966 Commander Ashby took the decision to sell Hearts Cruisers to Jenners. In 1967, Landamores at Wroxham decided to sell off their fleet of Vestella and Vesta motor cruisers which were also purchased by them. It seems that Jenners overstretched themselves and in 1968 the fleet was taken over by The Caister Group who already owned the largest fleet on the Broads after the purchase of several high profile yards in the mid 1960s. The Hearts boatyard and name was kept and was subsequently run by Ladbrokes, Pennant and then Richardsons. The boat hire side of the business ceased in 2002.

Many thanks to Vaughan Ashby for allowing me to share these wonderful films. The second film shows the launch and sinking of the Four of Hearts, plus some super footage of the island in winter, blanketed by snow. Once again, Vaughan has provided some commentary for it and I will begin work on editing this next month. There is also a third film which shows ice yachting on Wroxham Broad during the winter of 1963.  In the meantime, I’m sure that you’ll enjoy Hearts Cruisers Turnaround Day 1955.

Many thanks as ever to Video Impact at Loddon for kindly digitizing these films for Broadland Memories.

 

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