Stationerystill

Vaughan. The Town Council have not stopped public access to the staithe. It is free to moor for 24 hours just as it was when leased to the Broads Authority. It is not used very much which is why the B.A. would not continue leasing it. The modern boats are larger and many cannot get under the bridges. This is a source of regret as the Town Council is trying to encourage more use of the river.

There used to be a boatyard in Thorpe called Classic Cruisers. It is possible there is a connection.

It sunk and is in the basin opposite the Town House Hotel.

My father designed a lot of boats for the broads. He had a scale drawing of Potter Heigham Bridge on his board to check if they would pass under.The problem today is the boats are bigger and the water level seems to be higher.

Vaughan re your comment "This is not unusual, as public staithes were almost always a place of transfer of goods from road to river transport, so the land was usually owned by whoever owned the road. A similar case exists on Thorpe River Green and explains why, in both cases, the" council could not find any deeds." In the case of Thorpe they had the original deeds and lost them but there was a certified copy in the councils safe.There was also evidence in the council minutes of the transfer of ownership. The staithe is registered as belonging to the Town Council and the Broads Authority has accepted they own it and have since 1919. Prof. Williamson is the one who said otherwise but with very little evidence.

I have seen the replica Spitfires made by GB replica's at Catfield. They are incredibly realistic, right down to the last rivet, even when standing very close.

The period when we had glass hulls and wood superstructures might be considered. This is a Moores Griffin/Bourne 35.

In reply to oldgregg. It was John Linford who sadly died in an airplane crash. He was unable to land in a fog at St Faiths so he requested permission to land at RAF Coltishall which he was near. They said no and I believe he hit a pylon or overhead cable. This is what my father told me at the time. The Ocean 30 had the same hull as the Broom Skipper. The Broom Skipper hull and superstructure was designed by R.M.Martins but the Ocean 30 was I believe designed by John Bennett.

Looks like a diy superstructure to me.

This is Thorpe St Andrews response to the Glover review.

Interesting topic. My father was chief naval architect and general manager at Windboats designing many famous boats. They did not go straight from timber to concrete. They did small boats in aluminium and glass fibre. Donald Hagenbach and my father had a bitter disagreement about the subject of concrete v glass fibre which resulted in him resigning on the spot from a good job. He was convinced that glass fibe boats would be the future. He then borrowed money and set about designing the Griffin 35 (Bourne) which was the first of many commercial sucesses in glass fibre. He always maintained that concrete was more expensive to build and relied heavily on the skill of the plasterers. If even a pin hole is left water will get into the reinforcing with serious results. I do not know if that is right but it certainly is the case in concrete buildings.

A Flatafloat uses polystyrene for bouyancy. The problem with polystyrene is it is dissolved by petro chemicals so after 40 years of these spilling into the water the polystyrene can be depleted.

I agree with Vaughan. I also wonder if it is a case of boats getting bigger, stopping passage under bridges, rather than the water getting higher.Martham Boats seem to get under Potter Heigham bridge.

There is a small family owned boatyard called Freedom Boats in Thorpe St Andrew. This is on the River Yare about 2 miles from Norwich.

I am sorry to hear this sad news. I met him quite a few times and really liked him. I supplied him with office stationery and also met him at classic cars shows .He had a nice Jaguar. If I mentioned the Broads Authority to him he would get very excited and his voice went up a pitch. I think he hated them more than I did.

The Griffin 35(Bourne 35) was selling in big numbers from 1963 years before the Caribbean. Moores and Woods bought the first 12 in 1963 and many more yards followed their example after that.The first glass fibre boats were made by Halmatic. Seamaster and Freeman were making small glass fibre boats from about 1961.

The buildings are all too high. I remember when I owned a Thurne bungalow the B.A. were complaining about owners raising them up too high to avoid flooding. They also opposed two storey bungalows and yet here are very tall buildings which cost more to maintain and build. It makes more sense to build something low profile in timber with a pantile roof to blend in with the Broads area. These grand designs are just a vanity project.

This is a two year old draft.Since then Thorpe Town Council has submitted a file to the land registry and proved its ownership to their satisfaction. It was conveyed to the then parish council in 1919 by the Lord of the Manor and of course their are numerous references to this in the parish records. Prof. Williamson made reference to their being no copy of enclosure or tithe map. I have both. I had to pay for the tithe map from the National R.O. He also says it was not fenced from the road. There are paintings by Cotman showing a fence and a picture by N.C.C. of 1883 showing the fence. There are documentary records of the fence being moved by a resident and a public meeting which met and found in favour of the L.of the Manor. He was made to put the fence back. There is also a price list for mooring dated 1921 with the bylaws.This was updated several times. Post war it was leased to the G.Y.P.& H.C. and then the Broads Authority. They handed the lease back last year due to high cost of maintenance. Prof. Williamson did not do his research in our council archive or the Janet Smith Collection. He appeared to only look at some maps in the Norfolk R.O... which rarely can show fine detail. Roy Kemp who wrote the last staithe report did not include Thorpe because he lied here and knew it was not a public staithe. It is still the intention of the Town Council to keep a stretch of free 24 hour moorings for visitors. The Town Council has asked the B.A. for permission to erect a sign the other side of the bridge directing people to the River Green as they want visitors. The B.A. has refused that permission.

Am I right in remembering him having a small boatyard of his own next to Hearts?

My father was a glass fibre pioneer and marine surveyor. He told me he never found a structural failure or a sinking caused by boats having osmosis. I just prick the bubbles and let them dry out for a few weeks before filling with epoxy. It is time consuming, but cheap, and does not need any great skill. There is an osmosis industry dedicated to alarming people and persuading them to have expensive gellcoat removal and replacement but this is not necessary. It is important not to have a boat out of the water with osmosis when it might freeze as ice will damage the laminate as Vaughan has said. You can use the surveyors report to get a discount.

I have written to the RSPB on three occasions about their wrong statement that wherries carried tons of material around undredged broads whereas modern craft need dredging to a metre. In fact Hobroughs had 6 steam dredgers working out of Thorpe to constantly dredge the Broads in those days. It is clearly the ambition of the RSPB to stop navigation if it can and it has repeated this lie for years.

The head lease for the chalets is from the E.A. and states they must not be main residences and can only be used 50 weeks of the year. At least that was the case when I was a director of TBMC

Polycarbonate is best for windows. It lasts longer and is easier to cut.

Sorry but it would be too long and have too many pictures to put it on here.

I will go and ask Jack Jenner who used to own Maidencraft if he remembers. My talk on Thorpe Boatyards is Feb. 15th 2018. It will be advertised on our website when the programme is published at www.thorpe-history-group.org and also on our Facebook page.