dom

I think some work was done tidying up the Three Horseshoes/Waterside rooms site recently. I wonder if there might be plans for the site as part of this? I know BA made a recommendation for compulsory purchase a few years back, so its market value is probably fairly low. I'm sure the two came under the same management at one time during the 80s/90s. If King's Head is thriving, it'd be good if they did take it on.

We had manual gates in Tunstead well into the 90s. The gateman actually got a quite a nice house beside the crossing as part of the role.

I didn't think the restiction on reselling applied in non-residential contexts, but examples 8a/page 10 seems to suggest it does.

Watch your renewal premium. I'm a Gold AA member and have been with them for 20+ years. My premium (relay only, no homestart) went from £100 to £125 this year. Checking online, the same to a new customer was £85. One phone call and they amended the premium to match the new cost - but it's a sickening phenomena and shows our loyalty is just exploited. I also insure with them at the moment and had pretty much the same situation with that too.

My money would be on minimal or no increases on fuel duties due to the forthcoming election.

If you keep them long enough though, pretty much anything becomes valuable sooner or later. There's a recent trend for bog standard, base model Fords and Vauxhalls from the 80s becoming more desirable.

I can't quite decide whether it's stunning, or whether it's been over done just the tiniest amount. The protruding porch is very Tudor. A branch of my ancestors owned Hall Farm at Colkirk, which is original Tudor - the porch really reminds me of there. The chimneys are very Tudor too. I'm not sure if it's the scale of them which might be a little too much. I could probably force myself to live with it if it was being given away though! It's a shame there aren't a few more buildings like this closer to the cliffs. It'd be interesting to see how they'd cope with the issue of tides vs listed building.

How do you get anything historic though, if you allow everything "outdated" to be updated or replaced? Thatch is all but unused, so good examples need to be preserved, otherwise it'll be lost forever. You have to have the foresight to see when something is under threat. I do also think the arts & crafts style has merit, as its character is really sympathetic with older properties nearby. Irstead has a couple of other really nice examples, including a fairly sizeable one which is stunning.

I suspect most thatchers could, but none would. Those that still exist seem to be doing it pretty much just for the love of it to try and preserve the tradition. It'd be interesting to know if it's a permanent residence. I'd imagine the swap from thatch to tile would increase the property value substantially.

I noticed that one earlier. If you go through BA's expenditure reports, there are huge amounts (often tens of thousands) being spent every month on 3rd party legal fees. It does make you wonder how much of it is being wasted on pointless action like this. Irstead is lovely and really one of the last few unspoilt parts of the broads. It pains me to see thatch lost from a property there and I don't for one minute believe the owner of a £1m property can't overcome the "supply issues with thatch due to the Ukraine situation" which was used as justification for changing to tile. I really can't understand why the BA took the position they did when I'd assume they must be able to make a fast track listing submission to remove the development rights on the roof completely? You can understand why no-one seemingly wants the Head of Planning job though! I notice it's being re-advertised again.

In the past, I've mounted solenoids by clamping them into a rubber lined P clip, then bolting that onto a bobbin with reasonable success in automotive applications. Anything involving acoustics is a bit of a black art though. The resonant frequency of what you're mounting to may well have more influence than anything. If the pump's on a plywood bulkhead or similar, adding more mass to the panel will often help.

Exhaust bobbins tend to be good for isolating noise with things like this.

When I was young, if you spent a day on the beach, you could pretty much assume you'd see a search and rescue Sea King from Coltishall at some point. I wonder if the lack of RNLI coverage between Happisburgh and Yarmouth is in any way due to this and the assumption that the RAF would be there if needed. The RNLI's capital is such that they could put a couple of decent permanent stations in and barely even notice the dent in their finances (they lost £26m a few years ago just in investment losses!). What's the betting if you asked why they're not considering doing so, coastal erosion would be cited as a reason not to?

I think the motive amongst locals to keep the boats in service is quite well explained with an expression popular amongst 2nd amendment supporting Americans "when seconds count, the Police are just minutes away". If someone's in trouble in water, the margin between a life saved and one lost can be microscopically small. In an ideal world, the RNLI should really be taking over and improving these services. They're actually very cash rich. A recent year's accounts showed £220m income versus £178m expenditure.

They used a 3rd party contractor to recover an abandoned vessel at Sutton Staithe recently. Not sure if they have the resources to lift a boat anyway, but I'd suspect they'd be too risk averse to try lifting something in Yarmouth's tidal waters.

I did say "If this is another unregistered and abandoned vessel" in my initial post. I don't really understand why anyone would not criticise them. Tolls are a product of expenditure divided by tollpayers. Anyone not paying the toll is directly increasingly legitimate tollpayer's outgoings. There is ultimately no excuse. DWP will pay housing related expenses for liveaboards to anyone genuinely in need.

BBC have just posted an article about steps to relocate the station: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-68008265

The unlicensed home issue already has too great an influence on how they handle things. BA have taken one individual to court within the last year for non-payment of tolls, but incurred substantial costs in doing so which they'll never recover. The trouble is, they're doomed to failure with a lot of approaches due to the Human Rights Act. It's a growing issue and has a cost impact to legitimate boat owners (including law abiding liveaboards). They really need to send out a signal that unlicensed liveaboards won't be tolerated any more than non-payment of council tax would be on land. I think they need to get brave and either sieze the boat (as they're lawfully entitled to do), place it on land and provide power, water and a portaloo at nominal cost (to address human rights issues), or to remove and impound it and liaise with local councils to provide emergency housing. The counter arguement to the former is that you risk ending up with some sort of homeless encampment but, as things stand, it's fast becoming the case in some places anyway, in locations which should be some of the Broad's main beauty spots. A bit of a cluster of liveaboards tucked away in a corner of a marina somewhere isn't too much of an issue, but it's now overtaking public staithes and blocking power points, etc.

They need to utilise the legislation they've been given properly. Sections 17-20 of the Broads Authority Act give them extensive powers to enter, inspect, remove, impound, sell or destroy anything unsafe. Obviously, these are often unlicensed vessels. If something appears unsafe, phone the last recorded owner. If they still own it, enforce the toll requirement. That will require a BSS and invariably deal with any safety issues routinely. It also has the added benefit of bringing in more revenue, mitigating the need for toll increases. If there's no owner, stick a 28 day notice on it. If nothing happens, move it to Postwick, either by river or road. Store it on the brownfield land they own there. Every 6 months or so, have an auction to sell off anything unclaimed. It could actually prove to be a fairly profitable exercise, which could either benefit toll payers, or underwrite the cost of anything unsellable which needs costly disposal. I think in general, the BA could do with someone within their organisation with decent private sector commercial experience to tackle issues like this - and a lot of the other criticisms raised by BRAG and elsewhere. Having spent all my life in the private sector, I see things going on within BA and think how the hell do people keep their jobs? Why is the "Head of safety management" or the "Operations directorate" not getting to grips with these things before they incur costs?

There was a £2k charge in BA's accounts recently to raise a sunken vessel at Sutton Staithe. If this is another unregistered and abandoned vessel, dealing with tide issues at GY it's got to be another £3-4k going on next year's toll fees.

I think it's a very close race between Loynes and Herbert Bunn for the Wroxham title. Loynes is actually recorded as being in Belaugh in 1885-6, but the location is "near the bridge", so could be up towards the viaduct moorings. Herbert's a boatbuilder in 1881, but I've not managed to tie down the location where he worked as yet. I suspect Herbert could well be an apprentice to another boatbuilder, which might change things entirely!

I'd always been of the view that commercial boating (ie. trading wherries) went back hundreds of years, but holiday boating and racing started around the turn of the 20th century. That may well be due to the fact that the oldest racing yachts seem to date from around this time(?) and possibly the impression gained from reading Ransome's books too many times! Since posting the question, I've got hold a copy of "Norfolk Broads and Rivers, or The Waterways, Lagoons and Decoys of East Anglia" by G.Christopher Davies in 1884. It's a fantastic read (with surprisingly little archaic language) and will no doubt prompt another question or two. What's very evident from it is that the industry (and racing) seem to go back much further than we all think. By 1880, Wroxham week seems to be an extremely popular and busy event - including things like wherry quanting matches. There are suggestions that recreational boating had been going on for 100+ years and commercial letting for at least several decades. There's some really interesting detail on boats - like lateen rigs having been very popular, but rapidly dying out by the 1880s. What it hasn't clarified so far is the scale and nature of boatbuilding. I wonder to what degree boats were imported from elsewhere back then. There's the odd mention of racing between "foreign" and local designs, but no particular detail. I'm on a bit of a search for other similar publications to try and find out more. Bit of an excerpt, picked as I suspect @Vaughan might like it: We....enter a reach of the old river, which is crossed by two railway bridges. This is Thorpe reach, and it curves past an ancient mansion, many smaller houses with beautiful gardens, and the pretty village of Thorpe. It is a reach which is not excelled for variety of attraction and warmth of colour by any reach on the Thames. The inn at the lower end of it, kept by Hart, is a place of popular resort on summer evenings. Close as this is to the city, the fishing is at times good. In the winter of 1879 there was a large aggregation of pike in this reach, either from the fact that high tides had driven the fish up, or because the reach had been dydled out, and the fish sought the clear hard bottom. Over 500 pike were caught in a very short time 50 from one spot a few yards square and recently very good catches have been made of pike running up to 18 Ib. in weight, and bream up to 5 Ib. This, it should be noted, is within two miles of the city. Just to clarify, "dydled" is hand dredging with something akin to a landing net with finer mesh. It seems that large sections were dredged by hand in those days and spoil deposited directly on adjoining banks. I remember drag line dredging above Wroxham bridge in the 70s where they did the same. I find it laughable that horticulture is crying out for a peat replacement, but BA stuggle to dispose of dredging spoil which seems like a good option, possibly mixed with composted green domestic waste.

Are they though? The one in my village is teetering on the brink of closure. The one in a neighbouring village has closed. Seemingly the only way they can survive is combining postal services with a wide range of other goods. Even Hoveton has suffered this fate. The Post Office used to be on the precinct corner opposite Hotel Wroxham. It's had to move into the supermarket to survive. Wroxham post office is long, long gone, as are Coltishall, Scottow, Tunstead, etc. I'd concur with your views about employment, etc though. I'd ardently oppose it being converted into another holiday let or permanent housing. Someone needs to find an inventive use. Hair and beauty seems to be thriving now post-pandemic. I can't think of anything along those lines in Horning and there's plenty of wealthy potential customers? The shop next door used to be a butchers (another school mate did an apprenticeship there) and was most recently a flight-sim business, which I think has failed. Not sure if it's still vacant, but the two premises together could make a nice barber and hairdresser, or hairdresser and nail bar? My village is probably comparable size, but sustains a hairdresser, barber and nail bar. The barber drives a Porsche, so they're obviously not facing bankruptcy any time soon!

My Beko fridge, which I bought in 2005 is still going strong (touch wood!). My White Knight tumble dryer bought at the same time recenty failed aged about 17 years, so I replaced it with a Beko. It's an absolutely brilliant machine, despite being one of the cheapest on the market. I also bought a new washing machine recently. It's a Hoover which I chose as it had control from a mobile app. The app has never worked, the program control is intermittent and I suspect the drum bearings aren't going to last much longer. It's barely out of warranty. I actually wonder if "budget" brands work harder to ensure their products last, as they've not got an established reputation to rely upon.

I lived on the bottom of Mill Hill in the early 80s. One of my friend's parents ran the post office, but disposed of it as, even back then, it wasn't very viable commercially (they took Tidings on instead). Unfortunately, it's an unavoidable fact that we use post offices less and less and it's an increasingly small number of older people who rely upon it. You've also got Ludham and Hoveton post offices in close proximity either side. Counters don't need big glass barriers these days so, if there is a significant need for the local population, it could probably be accommodated with a small counter in Tidings.