Broadland Memories Cine Film From 1979

[Broads01]

I love watching the old cine films on the Broadland Memories Youtube channel and here's a gem that's been uploaded recently. It shows a big school trip (Steyning Grammar School) in October 1979. It was a huge group (several coaches are seen to leave Richardsons at the end!) and must have taken some organising. The group of Richardsons large craft look a little old and tired, even for the time, with the exception of a couple of Bounty 37s, then ultra-modern. I enjoy watching films like this that show Broads boating as it was before I first visited. In this film you can see all the boats 'beached' at Salhouse in the days before the quay heading was introduced - it takes me back to my first visits to the Broads as a child in the early 1980s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIOUxwTpaNQ&list=PL0267B651EEEF31D5

[Broads01]

I've just realised this is the same school that are still coming, hiring from Herbert Woods nowadays http://www.boarding.org.uk/media/news/article/2401/60-Years-of-Boating-on-the-Norfolk-Broads-for-Steyning-Students

[Baitrunner]

Fantastic to see youngsters in the rivers. 

Long may it happen  maybe I shouldn't use the wine cheers!

[BroadScot]

Those boats were well used by school groups. A party from a Wishaw school, had them every Easter break through the 70's that I know of.

Iain

[tjg1677]

That was wonderful to watch, so reminds me of my first taste of the broads in about 1974/75 on the aston cairn. The bermudas were causing quite a stir then as there were still an awful lot of traditional boats about, i seem to remember marmite syndrome with the bermudas, they were either loved or hated. The next boat we had was emerald from newsons in oulton broad. Thanks for posting that up, brought back some great memories of my first time.

Trev

[JanetAnne]

5 hours ago, tjg1677 said:

That was wonderful to watch, so reminds me of my first taste of the broads in about 1974/75 on the aston cairn.

Trev

I own that! Here she is more recently.

Been looking for Emerald for years now. She is one of our favs but just cant find her. Found Topaz and Amethyst but Emerald still proves illusive.

[AdnamsGirl]

It's a fabulous film - not actually one of mine, but one I added to the other YouTube users playlists I created for the Broadland Memories channel. This was presumably one of the "Broadsventure" schools weeks organised by the Rank Organisation who owned the Richardsons fleet at that time. I'd got a couple of photos showing a similar schools trip from 1978 on the website, so it was particularly interesting to see the film.

Amazing to find out that the same school are still bringing pupils to the Broads

 

Carol

[tjg1677]

8 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

I own that! Here she is more recently.

Been looking for Emerald for years now. She is one of our favs but just cant find her. Found Topaz and Amethyst but Emerald still proves illusive.

wow, that is absolutely amazing, what a co-incidence, I honestly thought she would be long gone now, it is wonderful to see my first boat is still on the go and whatsmore , looking lovely - she is a credit to you. Funny thing is I seem to remember her being so much bigger....must be a kid thing !! Has she still got the original BMC commander engine in her, I think when we hired her she had not long been converted to diesel from the old morris petrol engine. Whats she called now and where is she moored, I will have to keep an eye out for her!

Re Emerald, I have a horrible feeling she was scrapped but don't quote me on it. The last time we had her was in 1985 and she was getting very very tired. The yard owner or manager, cant remember which, he told us that she was being withdrawn the next season and they didn't know what to do with her, in fact he gave us the spare wooden name board off her stern as we departed to go home. I haven't a clue where that is now sadly.

She was in quite a state and a lot of drying out cracks were appearing in her superstructure and decks, in fact the decks were sealed in many many places with copper tingling to cover the cracks. She couldn't half shift though, left everything standing over breydon.

Thanks again, it is just great to see the cairn is still afloat, made my day that has.  Long may may she serve you well.

trev.

[JanetAnne]

Trev. She is still BMC powered (did you know they were originally Lister air cooled engined!) She is 32 foot long so I guess the pictures I grabbed dont do her justice. She is currently moored at Harleyford Marina on the Thames and in the care of my son. i finished her restoration in 2012.

In March this year we rescued one of her sister ships...

Gutted to hear about Emerald. One of two boats that we have actively seaerched for and really hoped to find again. We found the other one, but that's a whole new story!

[tjg1677]

No I didnt know that they were originally lister powered, I thought they were petrol jobs. That is one great restoration job IMHO.

What was the sister vessel you rescued, was it the terrier - i think that was a sister to her. I seem to recall the others in the dog class were a bit bigger werent they ? dredging up the old memory here....lol.

Dont take it as gospel about the emerald and please dont give up on her, that was just what we were told when we handed her back, in fact we were asked if we wanted to buy her but that was out of the question at the time.

It would be fantastic if you could find emerald, she was a lovely boat and quite a big one too, seem to recall she was around 42-44 feet long if i remember right.

 

Would really love to know the story of the other one and which one was it?

great remeniscing with you and keep up that fantastic work.

bye for now

Trev.

[trambo]

Great film harking back to a time when we would bet who had the scruffiest fleet. Martham, Richardsons or Woods!

Nice images of the Aston boats, a classic design. The first three built were the four berth Gay Princess and the five berth Lister / Summer Princess  in either 1958 or 1959. Emerald was the last boat built for hire under the Princess name.

Fred

[Broads01]

From what I've read Richardsons at that time wasn't owned by the Richardsons family. Didn't they sell it to the Rank Organisation and buy it back in 1984? I recall as a child seeing Richardsons in the Blakes brochure (as they were in 1979 I think) but they changed to Hoseasons in the 1980s.

[BroadScot]

9 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

From what I've read Richardsons at that time wasn't owned by the Richardsons family. Didn't they sell it to the Rank Organisation and buy it back in 1984? I recall as a child seeing Richardsons in the Blakes brochure (as they were in 1979 I think) but they changed to Hoseasons in the 1980s.

They were Blakes in 1978, we hired Streamway 5 then.

Iain