AdnamsGirl

Aaah ... hair straighteners ... my pet subject! If in doubt, you can purchase 12 volt hair straighteners now .... whilst not quite as good as those that you plug in to the mains, I am impressed with just how well they do actually work. I initially had some gas powered ones for boating ..... don't bother with those as they are worse than useless!! They don't get very hot and they just tend to rip your hair out! My eagle eyed hubby then spotted some Vidal Sassoon 12 volt in-car straighteners - he's earned brownie points for life with that one! They are very small, but do get quite hot and have ceramic plates - the size means it takes a little longer than using the usual variety, but they do the job nicely. I don't know what the drain on batteries is, but presumably not that much. I will usually try to use them whilst underway but have used them for ten minutes in the morning before we set off and haven't flattened the batteries yet! I have had a quick Google - there are quite a few makes of 12 volt straighteners now but someone is selling the same model I have on Ebay at the moment for £13 inc. postage: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BNIB-VIDAL-SASSOON-CAR-CERAMIC-STRAIGHTENERS-/250650326871?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Hair_Care_Hair_Straighteners_PP&hash=item3a5bec7757 Carol

If you have the time, I would try a few out before you buy - especially if you have female crew members who might be making use of them regularly. We have a couple of Crewsaver auto inflates which are extremely comfortable, and are worn at all times when underway (unless below deck), and when walking around on deck when moored. I did try out a cheaper life jacket (it may have been a Seago but I'm not sure) but wouldn't have been able to wear it for prolonged periods. How can I put this ...... certain parts of the female anatomy were heavily squashed by the cheaper jacket and the only way in which I could wear it with any degree of comfort was to place said offending female parts inbetween the straps of the jacket. Not only was this rather uncomfortable too, it also looked like I was advertising my wares!! So in the end, we chose the more expensive Crewsaver jackets - they work well too, as I found out at Brundall a couple of years ago! Carol

Pacific will apparently be adding a new boat to their fleet this year - a Bounty 27 Sedan. Richard has a few jobs which need to be done on it (as time allows), but it will be added to the website as soon as it is ready! A brother/sister for Chuggity Bob! Carol

I've never been to Sheppey ... but surely after 36 hours of going round and round it, there must have been some familiar landmarks which he would have passed a few times! Carol

Ok Jonny ... some odd 1930s behaviour! This is the branch of the Doric Health Movement which my grandmother belonged too .... I think this dates from the late 1930s and she is fourth from the right .... she always did have a sense of the dramatics about her! And I'll add this ... not exactly Broads related, but this was my grandparents wedding in 1930 which I think is just such a lovely photograph and shows some of the fashions of the time..... not to mention my grandfathers .. er.. interesting haircut! Carol

I don't know that they necessarily did anything "odd" in the 1930s! The things people did to entertain themselves on the Broads back then were pretty much the same as we do today ... fishing, reading, you were encouraged to take along things like a pack of cards, as I mentioned previously you could take along or hire a wireless or gramaphone ..... ukeleles were popular! The wherries usually had a small piano on board. Every boat came with a sailing dinghy included in the hire price and swimming was encouraged in those days. I have photos of people swimming at spots like Boater's Hill at Beccles ... not only was it something to do, but there were no showers on boats then and only larger vessels like the wherries had baths on board, so it was a way to keep clean! People walked a lot further in those days ... to beaches, around villages and sporting pursuits were popular. There were quite a few places which advertised having bowling grens, putting greens, croquet lawns and tennis courts. There was a big health kick in the 1930s .... my grandmother was a member of the "Doric" ladies group who did what were almost aerobics displays round the county. She had this set of strange clubs that she waved about (OK ... that was a bit odd then!). I'll see if I can dig one of those pictures out and post it on here. Picnics seem to have been popular and the area was promoted as being ideal for artists and photographers and bird watchers to visit. Holiday makers were also encouraged to visit the local inns where there was always an old wherryman or two who were willing to spin yarns for the tourists in return for a few beers! People also liked dancing in the 1920s and 1930s ... many of the villages held dances and you could apparently find one running somewhere virtually every evening of the week during the summer. Blakes 1935 brochure said "If one really wants to dance during the holiday then there are some jolly affairs run at various villages". I seem to remember reading that the building which is now the Bridge Stores at Potter Heigham was originally built as a dance pavilion, and I think there used to be a pavilion at the Swan in Horning. I also have an account of a boating holiday in the week leading up to the outbreak of WW2 where they mentioned passing a barn which had been converted to a village cinema for the evening. Most people included a trip to the seaside in their holiday and there were many passenger steamers which ran trips round the coast. So things haven't really changed that much and I think they found plenty of things to do! I couldn't find that much in the way of photos, but here are a few. This is a bit odd, I'll grant you .... Carol

I've finally managed to finish sorting out the 1930s photo albums and have uploaded a large selection of images from them to Broadland Memories this morning .... for anyone interested you can find them here: http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/page240.html As usual, there are a few unidentified locations and boats, so if anyone can help with those then please do get in touch. Carol

P.S. I should add ....it appears that you cannot link to Street View Googlemap images - only map or sattelite views. P.P.S. This thread IS now appearing in my "view your posts" lists! P.P.P.S. ..... Can I have a button now to embed British Pathe Films into the forum please?? .... O.K..... I'm pushing my luck now .... I'll get me coat! Carol

Hi Jill I'm so sorry ... I've only just noticed that you asked a question! For some reason this thread doean't appear in my "View Your Posts" section. You have probably already worked it out (or someone has told you), but for anyone who doesn't know ..... when you have zoomed in on the area of Google maps which you want to post (make sure that it is central on the screen), you will notice a "Link" button on the right of the screen directly above the map area. Left click on this and it provides you with two options .... you need to highlight the top option (paste in email or IM) and then copy and paste it into the googlemap button which Pete provided on the reply page, in exactly the same way you do with YouTube links. Carol

But Howard ... the "Best Beers for your cruise" were apparently Steward & Patteson's celebrated bottled ales and stout! Or Bullard & Sons celebrated Norwich Ales & Stout ...

A few images of Great Yarmouth. The first is of two of the "Belle" Steamers moored near Haven Bridge in the 1930s. And this is Marine Parade - posted in 1939. The next two actually date from the 1920s, but I thought I'd put them on here because they are just such great images! Carol

Going back to the postcard of Thorpe and the motor cruiser "Test" - a friend has told me that it has a clipper bow and is quite likely to have started life as something like a steam yacht rather than ever having been powered by sail. There were a lot of strange conversions of boats in the early part of the 20th century .... hulls of all sorts of vessels were taken and a new superstucture built on top to create either static houseboats or motor cruisers. Some of them really looked "bodged" together, but "Test" does look like a very stylish boat. Carol

Thanks Clive - that would be great! A couple of postcards of Womack Water from the 30s - the first is quite a busy scene and those parasol's make another appearance! Another view of Womack ... the large motor cruiser is probably "Enchantress" which was part of Leo Robinson's fleet at Oulton Broad. This is the 1933 brochure entry for Enchantress: Carol

A couple of postcards of Potter Heigham. The first is looking downstream towards the bridge ... the Bridge Hotel can be seen on the left. And this is the Bridge Hotel itself, dating from the mid 1930s. Carol

Thanks for scanning and posting that Clive --- interesting stuff! I thought you might like this photo ... it's from my 1934 album and there are at least two motor launches in amongst the array of other boats in the foreground! The reg numbers look like W442 and W443 (or 8).

I've got quite a few old postcards dating from the 1930s, so I thought I'd post a few on this thread as they often show some quite interesting views of Broadland. This is Oulton Broad Yacht Station ... posted in 1936. And this is Bridge Road with the Wherry Hotel in the background - there was an awful lot less traffic in those days! The row of shops on the right included Leo Robinsons Stores. Staying on the Southern Rivers, this is Thorpe St. Andrew - pictured in the early 1930s. The vessel on the right was called "Test" and was available to hire from G.Hazell & Sons of Thorpe. It looks to me like a wherry yacht which has had it's mast removed ... it has a very distinctive bow but I haven't been able to assertain whether it was once a wherry yacht! It was 50 feet in length with a 12ft beam, slept 9 people and the hire terms included "an engineer who does not attend to cooking" !! A weeks hire in 1935 would have set you back between £13 15 shillings and £20 10 shillings. Heading to the northern rivers, this is Hickling Pleasureboat Staithe. And Ludham Bridge - posted in 1935. I'll post some more later! Carol

Hi Andy and welcome! Keep an eye out on Ebay as copies of 1930s Blakes brochures do crop up quite often ... prices are usually anywhere between £50 and £80 on average though! Earlier ones do seem to be extremely rare ... I think an early 20s one sold for around £185 on there if memory serves correctly. It's unfortunately an expensive game!! Alternatively, if you can get to the main county library at the Forum in Norwich, then they have a fairly extensive collection of Blakes brochures .... you can view them onsite only as they are stored in the strongroom on the top floor (Millenium Heritage Centre or something like that!). I have sent you a PM regarding identifying your boat. Carol

I'm trying to sort out a batch of photos to print out ready for my next session of "Then & Nows" and thought I'd mention just how useful Google Street View is proving to be for the project. I have a stack of old postacrds of Martham and wondered just how much some of the views had changed, and exactly where some of them were taken, so decided to have a poke around on Street View. It will certainly save me time on driving around and trying to locate old buildings and I can now go along armed with notes on exactly where I need to be! It also gives you some idea of whether you are going to be able to recreate a scene without trees, hedges, other modern buildings obscuring the view. Obviously you can't get the right angles on street view, but it does at least give you the chance to study likely looking buildings which may have been heavily altered over the years to try and get a match! An example below from the Martham collection. This is Repps Road in Martham c1907 and below it is the link to the modern Google Street view (can't embed the street view image on here, just ordinary Google maps) ... I was able to study the window, door positions etc and decide that it was the right place. http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.702375,1.630322&spn=0,359.986063&z=17&layer=c&cbll=52.702408,1.630453&panoid=OConXuuYB499egwh1cbV9w&cbp=12,52.64,,0,3.68 And this is Black Street c1910. I managed to locate the terrace of cottages on the left .... most of those on the right are now gone apart from one of the houses which you can see in the distance which is clearly identifiable on Street View. Google Street View of the same location: http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.704631,1.633433&spn=0,359.986063&z=17&layer=c&cbll=52.704731,1.633435&panoid=OfY_ogDB_U-I_KMm4I7RGA&cbp=12,172.7,,1,2.91 So a very useful tool for this sort of thing! Carol

Step away from the saily brochures Howard .... you know it will take you a lot longer to get to pub stops with all that zig-zagging!! Carol

Summer Breeze was hired by the Southgates yard at Horning ... which happened to be owned by Herbert Woods at this time - hence the Woods star on the sail! He had also bought Applegates yard at Potter Heigham but ran both yards under their original names .... with Applegates it was said that he did so because he knew that some people preferred to hire from "smaller" yards! What fabulous photos Howard ... many thanks to you and your family for sharing them with us Any more??? Carol

It just shows how difficult it can be to try and identify locations in old photos sometimes Simon. Some things have changed so dramatically and, if it's at an angle you don't normally see in other photographs as in this case, it can just be annoyingly baffling!! I have a shelf full of books of old photos of the Broads, not to mention a website full of them which I can cross referrance with, and I still couldn't recognise it as The Maltsters! If you happen to passing, it would make a very good "Then & Now" subject!! Carol

Hi Jax Many thanks ... glad that you found it of interest. Sorry to have kept you up late! I've seen your boat about .... she is beautiful and I'm very jealous! I remember seeing the brokers interior pictures when she was up for sale a couple of years or so ago and she did look very original .... sadly Camelot didn't draw my lottery numbers at the time!! Carol

Isn't it amazing how you can study a picture for weeks ... think it does look so familiar ... and yet miss the bleedin' obvious!! You are quite right .. it is the Malsters! Many thanks!! Carol

Ok ... another conundrum for you! I'm not certain that this is actually a pub ..... no pub sign visible, but it looks as though it may have a license board over the doorway?? I can't get any details out of the road sign no matter what resolution I scan it at. One possible clue to the location is in what looks like a church type notice board on the right ... could it therefore be next to a church somewhere? I am fairly certain that it was taken somewhere on or around the northern rivers - dating from 1931. Any ideas where it is and if it was indeed a pub? Carol

It was Lord Rockingham! Confiscate my records !!!!! Simon ... having seen the way that the skipper was throwing Iverna around Wroxham Broad, I don't think I'd be smiling either by that point! (where's the seasick smiley)