Designed & Maintained By Carol Gingell
The Broadland Memories Archive gathers together collections of photographs and personal memories of life and leisure on the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads from the late 19th century to the late 1990s and also includes articles on various aspects of Broadland’s history.
The idea for the Broadland Memories website was born out of a strong interest in the history of boating for pleasure on the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads and a desire to archive some of the many wonderful old holiday photos I had seen, and to make these images available online, in one place, for others to enjoy. Most importantly, I wanted to ensure that these historic images of Broadland would not be lost. As I began to piece together the plans for what I wanted to achieve, I felt that it was also important to include some of the history of the area to accompany those images. I’ve always felt that one of the best ways to discover more about the history of any subject, and to capture the past, is by first hand accounts, written by the people who were there. So the inclusion of personal memories of holidaying, or living and working in Broadland, became an integral part of the plans for the website.
I had no previous experience of web design and the prospect of undertaking such a mammoth task was rather daunting! I turned to the members of the Norfolk Broads Forum to ask for advice and I am indebted for the help and guidance I received. There had been a number old photographs of Broadland, and recollections of holidays of old posted on the forum and those members kindly gave me permission to include these on the first version of the Broadland Memories website which was launched on the 3rd November 2006. The response the website received during the first year was very encouraging and an appeal for further submissions saw the archive begin to grow.
The archive is ever expanding and I always welcome new additions. Over the last few years I have been overwhelmed by the amount of fascinating and historic material which has been submitted – from holiday memories and snaps from the 1960s to rare collections of images from the Edwardian era. All are of great interest, and all are of historic importance as they provide a valuable insight into how the area and boating on the Broads has changed over the years, and the social history of the region during the 20th century. From very humble beginnings, the website has now grown to encompass a broad array of the region’s history. The archive is, however, very much an ongoing project with areas of the website still to complete – the research and writing of the historical overviews of the different eras is still continuing as, and when, time allows and will be published once finished. New submissions are being added to the website on a regular basis, links to which can be found on the “What’s New” page.
Broadland Memories is a not for profit website, the running costs of which are funded by myself and by the sale of the two DVD’s which have been produced for the archive. I do not ask for, or accept financial donations, but if you would like to help the archive then you can do so by purchasing one of those DVD’s. All profits received from the sale of the DVD’s are ploughed back into the website to cover running costs and to assist the purchase of further collections of photographs etc. for the archive.
The archive would not be what it is without all of the wonderful contributions of
photographs, memories and other items which I have received over the years – my thanks
to everyone who has contributed in this way. Thank you also to Andrew Day for his
ongoing support, technical expertise and assistance with research and to all those
others who I occasionally press-
For the archive to continue growing I need your help. If you or your family have any old photographs of Broadland, or can help with memories, stories or holiday tales then please get in contact with me. If you have lived or worked in Broadland over the years and have some interesting tales to tell or can provide any information about its history then I would be delighted to hear from you. If you have written, or are interested in writing an article on any aspect of Broadland’s history for inclusion in the “Further Historical Reading” section then please do get in contact. You will be given full credit for anything you submit and you will be helping to preserve the history of the area for future generations, as well as providing a wonderful online resource for those who are researching the history of the area or just have an interest in The Norfolk Broads.
Broadland Memories will not pass on any personal information, i.e. email addresses
or contact details, to any third party without your express permission. I am occasionally
asked for permission to use images on other websites or in publications -
Broadland Memories does not use cookies to collect any personal information (e.g.
ISP addresses) from anyone who visits the website. The webcounter on the home page
counts each visit to that page but does not gather or store any information about
the visitor. The YouTube videos on the DVD page are embedded using the enhanced privacy
mode – YouTube policy states: This mode restricts YouTube's ability to set cookies
for a user who views a web page that contains a privacy-
I am always delighted to receive any stories or memories of Broadland and photographs
of any size and quality to store within the archive. Unfortunately, I am unable to
display all submitted photographs on the website but do try to use as many as I can,
however, everything is archived and stored permanently. To enable me to display photos
on the site I need an absolute minimum of 800 pixels in width for those in landscape
format, and 500 pixels in width for those in the portrait format, obviously the higher
resolution the better as it enables me to pick out some of the smaller details within
the images. Please don’t let that put you off sending in any photographs you have
as everything is gratefully received. If you need any advice about scanning or emailing
photographs for the archive then please get in contact and I will do my best to advise.
Please try to include as much information as you can about the photographs -
All photographs are archived as they have been sent in, with no digital correction or alteration. Those which are displayed on the website are digitally re mastered, where possible, to remove colour casts, correct brightness and contrast and to clean up spots and marks to enable better viewing. Sometimes it may also be necessary to crop images for web display. To give you an idea of the correction which is possible, and that has been done, I have included a couple of examples below.
The photograph on the left is an example of one of the poorer condition images which I have had to work on. Not only were there many spots and splodges on the photo, but much of the detail was missing due to a combination of over exposure and fading. By carefully adjusting the contrast and brightness, much of that lost detail has now been restored and the worst of the marks were removed.
The photograph on the left had a strange pink colour cast which was removed and a more natural tone restored to the image., the camera flare spots in the top right have also been toned down.
Submitting personal memories and holiday tales
I am always pleased to hear people’s memories of Broadland too -
Submitting Paper & Ephemera
If you have any old Broads related newspaper cuttings, documents, hire invoices, letters, postcards, advertisements, brochures, holiday guides, etc., then I would also be very pleased to receive scans of these items for inclusion within the archive or for my own research purposes.
Please remember when using the Broadland Memories archive that all photographs, stories and written articles are protected by copyright and should not be copied for use in the public domain without the express permission of the copyright holder or Broadland Memories.
If you see a photograph within the archive which you believe to be incorrectly attributed then please contact us. We will endeavour to investigate all possible copyright infringements and, if proven, we will either remove the image or ensure that it is correctly attributed.
I try to ensure that all information within Broadland Memories is correct; however, if you do spot any mistakes then please do get in contact. I always welcome corrections or further information about any aspect of Broadland’s history or the photographs displayed on the website. Wherever possible I have spoken to the contributors to gain as much information as I can about the photographs submitted. The holiday tales and personal stories are generally unedited and are published as submitted by the contributors.
