SimonSherbot

I am now clutching at straws, so I have scowered Google Maps and found a satellite image that almost exactly matches my description. There are three problems with this though. One - it isn’t a pub, two - I cannot see it listed as a lost pub and three - due to the railway bridge, the Google camera van could not get a street view of Riverside at Reedham beyond The Ship. Does anyone remember there being a pub on the eastern side of the railway bridge just as the road turns left then right?

Thank you Maurice? The original main building is the most (of all I have seen) like the pub I remember. I take it that the large extension is a later than 1972 addition. I am not seeing cottages behind running parallel with the garden and pub though. Yes we did go under Potter Heigham bridge, which was the scene of one of our many mishaps. We obviously needed to lower the mast and this was our first attempt at doing so. From what I remember it needed to be lowered with a winch and a pin needed to be removed. My chum was in the cockpit and I was In charge of removing the pin. Confusion reigned and I removed the pin before the tension was engaged. The mast plummeted and snapped the wooden mast support in two and then split the cockpit roof. My white faced chum’s head was 2 inches from the mast when it came to rest with his right shoulder looking as though it was the new support.

Thank you Vaughan, the Dukes Head has elements of my description but I don’t think it is it, although it will be added to the list. Simon

Thank you Lulu. From the picture and satellite imaging it looks like it has been extended to the side and front. The original white building fits the bill but as you say it doesn’t have a narrow road with cottages behind it. So much can change though in 50 years. Otherwise it is a good fit and certainly on the shortlist. Simon

Thank you Liz, I have a weird long term memory, clearly remembering many things from the age of just turned 3. These memories are very much dependent on whether it was something out of the ordinary or special. I remember so much about particular moments from this early Broads holiday and I think there were a row of small terraced houses running alongside the garden and the pub on the other side of the road and not chalets. The Waveney doesn’t look like my minds eye memory but all suggestions are gratefully received. Simon

Yes we did. We may have gone further but we certainly made it to Reedham. I am really not sure if we went down the Waveney. We had a wooden sailing boat that had a dodgy engine that kept cutting out and crucially it did so as we emerged from the Bure to go up the Yare. The tide was going out and we were being taken towards the sea. We didn’t have the sail up but the mast was in the upright position with us going fast towards the bridge. Thankfully there were a couple of barges moored on the north side, so I threw the anchor into one of them, which held. This was one of many mishaps we had.

This fits the bill as far as the photo shows. Just needs a good sized garden on the side.

Both of these photographs are promising. As for naming the pub in the third photograph, since we were only 16, we counted ourselves lucky to get served, so we didn’t push it by drinking inside, although I appreciate that you are not putting this forward as a suggestion

I think you might be right and not a bad way to spend a week

No I am afraid it is very pricey due to the fact there are six pubs 😄

Thank you so much to all of you who have taken the trouble to help me, when my cry for help must seem to be about a very trivial matter. Griff’s postcard picture of the The Anchor at Coltishall does make a stronger case for this being the one. If the New Inn once had a bigger garden, then this would certainly elevate it up the short list. Such a shame that someone hasn’t written a history (or perhaps they have) of the Broads pubs with pictures. The Black Horse might well be the one but it seems nothing but an internal photograph survives. If the pub I seek has gone, then it is a crying shame because it was so lovely. My village is lucky enough to have six pubs and my wife and I have been in the oldest (the 16th Century Black Horse) tonight but here too one is teetering on the brink. I suppose one cannot expect them to exist just because we don’t like change. It is a great shame when one thinks about the countless days and evenings where for the most part much convivial conversation and fun has taken place in them for many generations. If only walls could talk.

The Anchor at Coltishall doesn’t look right from a picture I have now seen but it could just be the angle.

Thank you for all your suggestions. Seems that no pictures exist of the outside of the Black Horse. The Petersfield is a possibility when looking at a postcard of it on eBay but it is not a good angle. The Staithe and Willow is also a possibility but the garden seems much smaller than I remember, although of course some of it could have been sold off for housing. I am still looking at the other suggestions.

Thank you very much indeed. I am very impressed.

Hello, I recently returned to the area, which I have done quite a few times over the last five decades but this time I decided to seek out a pub that I went to in July 1972. Needless to say, I could not find it and my searching on the internet did not give it up either. I am wondering whether anyone with a lifelong local knowledge can suggest which pub it is or more probably was. It was during a week long Broads holiday with a school chum when we were 16 and I had already been dating my wife for over a year. On realising that I was trying to identify this pub my wife produced two postcards that I sent her at the time in case they gave a clue but sadly only one card mentions pubs and only to say there are four pubs in Horning. My chum and I covered a great deal of the Broads in that short week, so the pub in question could be anywhere. The evening in question was a very warm one and upon managing to buy some alcoholic drinks we sat in the rather pleasant garden laughing over our numerous sailing mishaps (how we didn’t get killed is a matter of sheer luck). The garden was quite large and to the end of the pub (garden on the right looking from the river). It was an old pub even then and I believe it had a narrow road running across the front/back of the pub with small old houses on the other side facing both the pub and garden. I think the pub was on the river bank but having looked on Google maps and not finding anything that dovetails with my description, I have started to doubt myself. In my minds eye I remember the pub as being rendered or painted pebble dash but whether after fifty years my idealised memory of a great evening has become muddled or invented, I don’t know. If it does still exist then I would love to return there with my wife of 46 years with whom I have been lucky enough to have five children and blessed with half a dozen or so grandchildren. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you. Simon