Gallery 1970s Page 11

* home * about this site * archive * contact *

Designed & Maintained By Carol Gingell

© C.Gingell 2007 - all photographs, personal stories and written articles on this site are copyright and should not be reproduced anywhere else without the permission of the copyright owner and Broadland Memories.

Page 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

The final photo of Thorpe St. Andrew taken by John Chesney in the late 1970s shows the approach to the east rail bridge, with what is now the Rushcutters public house on the left. The pub was originally called the Three Tuns but was renamed Thorpe Gardens in 1879 - the licensee at this time was John Hart who leased cabin yachts and smaller pleasure boats from the site. 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. Thorpe Gardens had another name change in 1969 when it became The Boat & Bottle, and again in 1985 when it was re-christened The Rushcutters.

Moving further downstream on the River Yare this photograph, dating from 1978, shows the old boatyard on Whitlingham Reach at Thorpe St. Andrew. This site is now better known as the home to the Broads Authority work barges (formerly occupied by May Gurney).

Another view of the boatyard on Whitlingham Reach, photographed at the same time as the previous image. A large, sea-going vessel “Nova Shore” is presumably being worked on.

The “Decca Mariner” pictured at Whitlingham Reach, Thorpe St. Andrew in the late 1970s.

More sea-going craft moored at Thorpe St. Andrew, photographed in 1975.

The final photograph of the boatyard at Whitlingham Reach, Thorpe St. Andrew dates from 1977.

This wreck was photographed on the River Yare by John Chesney in 1977. My thanks got to Vaughan Ashby for providing an identification of the vessel of which he says: “She was not a wherry but a genuine Thames spritsail barge. These were often seen coming up to Norwich with coastal trade up until the end of the 50′s and I can remember seeing their masts going by behind the railway line, from the gunboat Morning Flight in Thorpe. She is sunk in the old Whitlingham sewage works dyke, on the west bank of the Yare between Postwick Grove and the Woods End. She was named HAROLD MARGETTS and her registered port was ROCHESTER. You can see the remains of these two words on her transom. There was also a large wherry sunk in the dyke up ahead of her, but I don’t know her name. I used to walk over the decks of these wrecks as a boy, when there was a lot more left of them.”

The first of four photographs which feature the wherry yacht “Olive”, seen here moored at Norwich Yacht Station in 1977. “Olive” was built by Ernest Collins at Wroxham and was named after his youngest daughter. She is currently under the care of the Wherry Yacht Charter Charitable Trust and is awaiting restoration.

Wherry Yacht Olive on Barton Broad 1970s

The wherry yacht “Olive”, pictured crossing Barton Broad in the late 1970s.

More photographs from the John Chesney Collection

Another view of the Hearts Cruisers boatyard at Thorpe St. Andrew, taken by John Chesney in 1977. As previously mentioned, the yard was under the ownership of the Ladbrokes Group at this time, and was later sold to the Richardson Group. The cruiser in the foreground has the registration number B689 and looks to be another centre cockpit Elysian 27, so presumably another of the “Mistress of Hearts” class. Behind that is F844 “Leopardess of Hearts” which was an Aquafibre 38. This image is another which can be found with a modern comparison photograph of the same view in the Thorpe St. Andrew section of the Then & Now pages.

<< Pages 1-10

Pages 21 on >>