JennyMorgan

Plenty of nearby free parking up until April the 1st. Still plenty after that but at a price. Obviously as the season progresses the parking areas become more crowded & you might have a bit of a walk. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it!

Gt Yarmouth does have its good points! It's not just soggy chips on the market or the chav life-style, it also has a wonderful Sea-Life Centre. Best buy your tickets on line, you'll save quite a few quid. Getting on for two miles walk from the Yacht Station, ideal for those who want to sample the GroT in Yarmouth. If you like slumbing it with tat cloths shops, regurgitated chicken or beef burgers and two penny arcades you'll have a great time! It was my grandson's first birthday today so off the the SeaLife Centre we went, we know how to splash out! Actually we thought the prices very reasonable, on line. Luckily us locals can sign up for a season ticket and that's even better value. Anyway, we started with a meal, okay price but hardly award winning, the only negative, before going round the many exhibits. Our grandson loved it and so did we! Excellent, interesting displays, generally most impressive. Highly recommended, in my honest opinion. https://www.visitsealife.com/great-yarmouth/buy-tickets/ .

Useful advice, for those of us who don't have windows!

PS Jenny is in fact the name of Peter's boat!

Don't think that any of mine were quite that close! Mum's family tree on one side was very clearly Colby, Bean and Mickleburgh, all from one village, Pakefield near Lowestoft. For well over four hundred years the three families did what comes naturally on a diet of fresh herrings and seaweed, to a point where a Colby married a Colby and so on. Quite how close the bloodline was I don't know, perhaps that was the undiscussed skeleton!

Is that really possible?

Didn't think that pike were suitably equipped for such questionable antics!

My mum. bless her, was a bit of a Mrs Bouquet. Both her and her sister became quite fanatical about their family tree. Great, really pleased to discover a Royal connection, a Lord Balfour being the father, despite it being a 'wrong side of the sheets' affair. Became more and more keen to gain more information, until they uncovered a skeleton or two in the cupboard, or so they thought, a spot of inevitable, traditional inbreeding, Norfolk & Suffolk coastal style. Their fad soon became a subject that wasn't talked about! Personally I have never had anything other than a passing curiosity about such things, maybe one day though.

Mark, the pike are probably gravid after the relatively mild winter. Gone slow down my end too.

What a memory! I have trouble with yesterday, or was it the day before?

Quite probably, the gold taps were gold too, not that rolled stuff or electro-plated or whatever. What year was it, do you remember?

I only ever met Jack once, about 40 or so years ago. I was asked to photograph a boat that he'd built for a very wealthy, oriental gentleman. The hull and superstructure were built separately at Wroxham, the reason being that she was too high to pass under the bridges on her trip to sea. The hull came to Lowestoft by water, the superstructure by road, both to be assembled at, I think, Fletchers yard. Once completed I photographed her for one of the boating magazines, Motor Boat & Yachting I think. She was actually built as the tender to a much bigger motor yacht. She had a main cabin with a day-bed for the owner. The headboard was encrusted with diamonds and other precious stones. Jack did tell me the value of the stones, I forget now but it was a breathtaking amount, rather more than the boat itself. Down to earth bloke.

Stebbings is/was certainly a popular name around the Lowestoft/Oulton Broad area. Perhaps great, great granddad was the local milkman? My father and his father and his father etc.etc. were all wine merchants or publicans. The Stebbings family that my father and I knew were also wine merchants at one time. Going back some time though. It was Stebbings the butchers that my father regarded as a good friend, no idea if its the same family though. If I remember correctly a Stebbings won 6m on the Lottery, not you was it Shirley?

Bit more info here: http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?uid=MNF25538 I remember seeing the TV program, interesting stuff. WWII ended only 70 yrs ago, so much history already lost.

More, but not much, info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heigham_Holmes

I didn't even notice!

Resist, no, I won't mention the obvious!! That aside, without looking to nit pick, it looks to be a good read.

This is a third hand copy of a painting in a book by a man called Colman-Green so is hardly quality. Bang in the centre is the Commodore! Hardly a photogenic pub, the back of which overlooks Oulton Broad. It was also the local watermen's pub so, I suspect, was largely ignored as a holiday destination.

Best 'general shot that I can find, Commodore is to the right of the tall 'chimbly' about one third in from the left.

Hi Shirley, coincidentally I have an old spirit bottle with 'Stebbings' embossed upon it but no mention of the Commodore. Re a snap, I'm sure I have one of the general area, including the pub, but not one specifically of the Commodore, I'll have a look..

The hangers were bought, so I believe, as surplus and transported to the yard. There used to be an on-line written history of the Martham yard but I can not, regretfully, find it.

It's the WWII Spitfire hanger that I always found fascinating about Martham's sheds. A place that is full of Broads history and amazing junk.

Interesting is that, Strow, good old bloke is Gordon. Tim, the boat builder with the gammy leg, was a marvel to work with. As you found out help was a mutual thing, especially when it came to shifting boats around the shed. Good old days, I enjoyed the years when we kept 'Spray' there. Afraid the distance became an obstacle. Alright when it was major jobs. when we first had her, & I spent the night onboard, as did one or two others, but when it was for a couple of hours at a time at odd times during the week the journey became illogical. Re rolled up, newspaper formers, not unique to the Broads. I have a Salter, Thames, built skiff. The formers had been rolled and fastened with a stapler, the staples rusting and leaching through the resin, annoyed the hell out of me so I eventually cut them out. Must have been fairly common practice at one time. I always knew the bucking hammer as a 'dolly'. The parlance of the day during the sixties and seventies ensured that the fellow holding it was therefore a 'dolly bird', even if he was a hulking great bloke!

I've spent several winters in the sheds at Martham whilst working on my daughter's boat. I can assure you, Strow, that there are people there who would make good that repair in not many hours, and she would be as good as new. Re Vaughan's mention of bulkheads in GRP boats, I have a good friend with a yard at Lake Lothing, near Oulton Broad. He has told me several gruesome tales of folk 'improving' their grp boats by removing bulkheads, walls, with a view to creating an 'open plan' lay-out. Often done whilst afloat, problems arising when the boat is lifted out for anti-fouling, for example.