Museum Of The Broads New Boat And Replace Falcon's Steam Engine

[JennyMorgan]

On 18/07/2018 at 11:55, Guest said:

I remember the 'boat shaped bar' at the Maltsters, from our first visit in 1972. Those were the days of 'Norwich Bitter' and scampi & chips in a basket... I've seen the bar many times since, both at the Maltsters and at it's new home in the Museum of the Broads.

Besides the 'boat bar' at the museum, I always say hello to this 'moth eaten' old specimen, because he's also a part of Broads history too. I remember the first time I came 'face to face' with one of these little chaps. I was riding my motor bike along Market Road in Burgh Castle, when the headlight caught it, sitting beside the road on the edge of the marshes. The thing that struck me, about what looked like an oversized rat, was it's bright orange incisor teeth, which seemed almost fluorescent in the light beam. I saw quite a few more Coypu, mostly on the marshes around St. Olaves, Belton and Burgh Castle in the late seventies. It's a pity they had to be killed, but the damage they did to the drainage dykes, flood banks and sugar beet crops, meant they had to go. I believe the last Coypu's were finally eradicated, from the broads area, in the late eighties...

 

Good memories, thank you.

[LisaRose]

6 hours ago, Vaughan said:

I will see what I can find! I know I have some somewhere.

That would be be amazing! Thank you so much 😊😊

[JennyMorgan]

On 21/07/2018 at 14:47, Guest said:

I knew an old chap, when I lived at Burgh Castle, he told me, he got "five bob for 'em". He worked the marshes on 'the island' and never went short of 'beer money' thanks to the coypus and the geese or ducks, that "flew into the pylons" near Haddiscoe bridge...  

By the end of the campaign, when they were becoming scarce, it was up to ten bob, a lot of money for a young teenager like yours truly. The big freeze of 63/64 was akin to Klondike! The coypu were still active but they had to travel over the ice. I had two cage traps which after most nights had one, even two coypu in each but chasing them over the ice on skates was the thing. Firstly you could easily track the coypu in the snow and ice but if you chased after them then sooner or later they would stop, turn and confront their foe. I had an old Webly .22 air rifle and from about ten feet away it was more than capable of a clean kill. Aim just above the eyes, same with a humane killer for the rats in the cages, and ratty was a gonner. It was easy money, and an excuse to be out literally on the Broad or roaming the marshes.