AdnamsGirl

Found them! I hope Peter doesn't mind, but these are the images showing the old reach names that he posted a few years ago which might be of interest.

Yes, Howard is right - Dungeon Corner is the tight, almost 90 degree bend in that stretch of river. I've attempted to discover how it got that name a few times in the past, but have yet to come up with an answer. Carol

I noted in the past that it was also referred to as Kendal Dyke/Dike in the late 19th century by both P.H. Emerson (in 'On English Lagoons') and by George Christopher Davies in his "Handbook to the Rivers & Broads of Norfolk & Suffolk'. I often wondered if it was a dialect thing in that they wrote it down as they heard it pronounced. Having said that, there are other instances of places being known under slightly different names like Dydler's Mill which I've also seen as Dydall's Mill. Whilst on the subject, and in the Upper Thurne area, does anyone know why Dungeon Reach and Dungeon Corner are so named? I'm sure that Peter Waller once posted a list of all the old reach names in the dim and distant past ..... perhaps on another forum. Carol

I think I can beat that .... I did actually complain to Tesco a few years ago when this was the amount of packaging used for the four (quite small) items you can see to the left ordered via Tesco Direct to collect in store. Boxes within boxes, reams of bubble wrap and sundry other plastic wrapping. Carol

Just to add - Belvedere was still on hire at Wayford Bridge in 1958, as listed in the Blakes brochure for that year. I then have a big gap in brochures, my next point of reference being 1966 and I can't see her in there. If anyone else has the brochures in between, they may be able to tell you when she disappeared from hire. Carol

Hi James The photos sound very interesting Here are a couple of brochure entries for you. She was hired (and presumably built) by W. Hewitt's boatyard at Wayford Bridge. The first brochure entry is from 1929 which states that she was built in 1926 - interestingly, she was listed as "Belvidere" with an "i" here and also in the 1933 brochure. The second entry is from Blakes 1935 brochure which has the spelling of "Belvedere". Looking forward to seeing the photos. Carol

I seem to remember reading that she broke her back whilst being hauled out for maintenance at Martham at some point in the 1970s - perhaps someone else can confirm? Carol

We popped over to The Locks today to check it out - they have been doing some decorating, but it's all stripped out and looking very sterile and bare at the moment. I think I read elsewhere that the old artwork and photos that adorned the walls are in storage and will be coming back out at some point. I hope so, as it is somewhat soul-less and empty. The main entrance is not being used at present, the door to the right is now the main entrance and the handpumps are on the little bar out there. Keg beers line the back wall behind the old main bar. Naturally, it is all Grain beers ..... although some of the prices are a little eye watering for a brewery owned establishment. The kitchen is currently closed for refurbishment (until Easter I think she said), just a cheese board on offer for anyone wanting food. I have to say, I've never seen the Locks so quiet on a weekend lunchtime - just one other couple who (like us) had one beer and left, and a couple of walkers who came in looking for a meal. It will be interesting to go back when we are afloat in a few months time and see what has been done with the place as it is very early days. The slightly worrying aspect is that they are tagging the Locks as being a "gastropub" on their own Facebook page. The Locks has been the way it was for an awful lot of years, and I'm not sure that trying to push it upmarket (if that is the intention) will work in that location. They have a new chef who will be previewing his skills via a BBQ next Saturday apparently. It would be a real shame if the place lost the special character it had, but we'll wait and see. On another note ... it's nice to see that some restoration work has been done on the lock itself. Pictures below. Carol

I think the shoe gene must have bypassed me Or maybe it's living up a muddy lane in the middle of the countryside for the last 30 years ... but here we go, from left to right .... Boating shoes, cycling shoes, going out shoes and on the right (most importantly) my everyday shoes Carol

The day boat W714 is indeed still very much around .... she is used as a ferry by the Barton House Railway on their open days. Second row, middle picture: http://www.bartonhouserailway.co.uk/gallery/ As much as I'd like to take the credit for knowing this, I was actually sent the link to share (thank you Andrew ) Great photos btw Roy. Carol

I noticed that one too! Someone has also listed a Powles badge this week with a £150 buy it now price. Seriously? A few of the less common ones have been fetching silly money in the last couple of years, £100 plus, but you only need two completist collectors bidding to do that. In my experience, wait until another comes up for auction. Once those completists have their badges the auction price comes down to a sensible level .... there will always be some chancers who have seen the odd few sell for daft money and think theirs must be worth the same mind you! I've built up quite a nice little collection via eBay and never paid more than £8 - £12 each. Powles ones are extremely common so I'd be very surprised if that one sells. There is a slightly later Powles badge on there too at the moment for about £10 or £12. It is also worth searching online as I've seen dealers with their own websites selling them at fairly reasonable prices. Carol

This might be of interest to some of you - originally broadcast in 1998, the year of Albion's centenary, The Last Wherry tells the story of how Albion survived and of some of the people who saved her. Lots of interesting interviews with Wherry Trust members along with an overview of the history and eventual decline of the trading wherry, and the development of pleasure wherries and wherry yachts as the popularity of holidays afloat grew. Carol

Good to hear of another base on the Southern Rivers from which to hire - I wish them well. Along with the football themed fleet in the past, in 1968 the then licensee of the Waveney Inn at Burgh St Peter introduced a fleet of six hire cruisers named after the Whitbread beers he served in the pub ... Gold Label, Mackeson, Tankard and Forrest Brown being some of those listed in this newspaper article at the time. It seemed to be a fairly short lived venture as, by 1973, some if not all of the cruisers had become part of Richardson's fleet at Stalham. Carol

Quayside Club I seem to remember? Carol

I've just finished my last bit of website work for Broadland Memories before Christmas and thought it may be of interest if you have a bit of time to spare over the holiday. I was recently sent the most fabulous journal and accompanying photographs from a holiday afloat on the wherry yacht White Heather in 1932 - i am truly honoured to have been given permission to publish it online! It is so we'll written, peppered with humour, full of detail and such an interesting read not only from a local history point of view, but as a fantastic piece of social history in general. How travel and holidays have changed .... or not! http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/holidayafloat1932.html Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2019! Carol

Thanks for that Vaughan. Excellent photos Marshman, thank you for the link. I don't think I have any photos showing the tow like those, but I seem to remember they were captured very briefly on cine film by my grandfather c1950. Carol

I've got a few news cuttings relating to coasters damaging vessels and Reedhan Bridge on Broadland Memories ... including one which Vaughan kindly sent me. The first is from September 1965, the second article from 1978 (Aston Penguin) and the third is from 1976. I was sent some photographs which I actually managed to match up to the incident described in the 1976 article of the sailing cruiser Brigand being recovered from the river which I included in a blog post in 2013 .... two years later I then recieved a message from someone who was actually on board Brigand when the accident happened. The power of the internet! Anyway ... you can find that blog post here: http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/blog/2013/01/when-coasters-ruled-the-yare/ Carol

Howard is correct that the boat database and Broadland Memories are hosted by the same company - Heart Internet. They have been having some major server issues over the last few weeks which resulted in all of the sites they host being down for about 18 hours on one day and then intermittently up and down over the next week or so. They have consequently lost an awful lot of customers! Craig hosts Broadland Memories for me under his re-seller package with them (which keeps my hosting costs down enormously!) and, like many customers, is not at all happy with the service they have been providing so it looks like we will be moving to a new web hosting company. I believe he is going to be migrating all of the various websites under his wing over the next few weeks. I am also unable to access the boat database at the moment, and presume that he may be trying to move the site over to the new web host .... I don't know this for certain as I haven't spoken to him, but this is just a guess. The migration is supposed to be done without too much disruption, but there may be some access issues in the interim whilst it is all being sorted. I'm sure it will be up and running again as soon as possible - hopefully he'll have it all sussed by the time Broadland Memories is moved! Carol

What a pad! Coincidentally, I've been working on a set of c1900 photos this week which includes this photo of what I thought was probably Hill House - the size of what I presume must be a greenhouse here, or hot house as it seems to have a chimney, is astonishing! Carol

The Regal Lady ran trips out of Norwich from the early 1970s up until she was sold and moved to Scarborough in the 1980s. This was the information I was given about her by the son of her owner at that time: Regal Lady began life as the passenger steamer "Oulton Belle" built by Fellows & Co of Great Yarmouth c1930 for the Yarmouth and Gorleston Steam Packet Company. She was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence during WW2 for work as a fleet tender on the Clyde. She is apparently listed as being one of the Dunkirk "Little Ships", but one of her former skippers, Jack Cates, was apparently adamant that she never went to Dunkirk. She returned to Gt Yarmouth after the war and continued to be used for pleasure trips. In 1954 she was sold and moved to Scarborough where she was renamed Regal Lady and was converted to diesel. She returned to the Broads in 1970 when she was bought by Neville Blake who, along with son Kim who supplied this info, operated her from Norwich until 1984. She was moved back up the coast to Scarborough in 1986 and, I believe, is still running passenger trips up there today. The photo below shows her in her earlier incarnation as the Oulton Belle at Great Yarmouth. Carol

Many thanks for all the comments and info on the film - lovely photos from Vaughan and Fred too! The second film from the same family has now been edited and uploaded to YouTube - theis is from 1972 and they appear to be on one of the Aston Mars class of cruisers, but I couldn't quite make out the registration number to be certain which of the class it was. Another interesting film, this time concentrating on the southern Broads. Carol

A few years ago I was informed by a Barton Turf historian that the sign is indeed directional, pointing to Pennygate in one direction and Barton Turf Staithe in the other, after I had made the (seemingly wrong) assumption that it was Pennygate Staithe whilst captioning a photo. Carol

Thanks for sharing the film Fred I'm pleased that it has gone down well. It's not the greatest quality bit of film, but it is interesting ..... these old film's are all interesting! I hadn't spotted the SOS board. I always say that you spot something different every time you watch. This is the first of two cine film's from the same (sadly unknown) family. They returned the following year on one of the Aston Mars class and cruised the southern rivers. I hope to get that one edited and online next week. I also dropped a bundle of new films gathered over the previous year over to Kieron at Video Impact a few weeks ago. More 60s and 70s 8mm film's plus two (as yet) unseen 16mm colour film's, one of which appears to have been taken on one of Woods Delights. Those are either 50s or 60s. What I'm most excited about though is a 1930s 9.5MM reel which, I think, may be one of the early Blake's promo films. Fingers crossed! In the meantime I've still got lots more old photos to get onto the website which I will start making my way through over the coming months. Carol

Fantastic turnout of boats at Beccles - well done and thank you to everyone involved. It was a wonderful sight and lovely to catch up with people and to put a few new faces to forum names. I just wish that we could have stayed and chatted for longer and nosied round a few more boats but parking was really difficult in Beccles this year, and we only just made it back to the car before our three hours ran out! Lovely photos of the event too. Carol

I have a feeling that the wherry in that last postcard on the Waveney was Bramble. Was this image used as a cover for one of Blake's brochures in the 30s? There are some lovely memories out there on the internet from someone who lived aboard her at Beccles during the war: http://www.sailing-by.org.uk/born-aboard-wherry-bramble-1940/ Carol