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Broadland Memories. Norfolk Broads 1971- Snow Goose 1


trambo

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Latest offering from Carol and a must watch. So many gems but I think my favourite is at 6:09 when I thought a Woods ex Landamore was coming into picture but it was actualy Conquest  formerly the Ace of Hearts. Had not seen or can not remember seeing her in this livery. She did return to operate from Heatrs as the Conquest of Hearts which I always thought a slightly ironic renaming.

Fred

 

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 A lovely piece of film and many thanks to Carol and Trambo for sharing it with us. There is so much to discuss and recognise here but let's start with a quick one :

At 1m 23s you can see an SOS board on the bank at Ant mouth. Who remembers those? They were placed at all the major locations around the Broads and if there was an emergency message for someone on holiday on a hire boat, the river inspectors would chalk on the name of the boat and the name of the hirer. The message was also passed to all Blakes and Hoseasons yards. So if you saw your name, you just had to phone the Commissioners, or your own boatyard. Other boats, seeing the message, would keep a lookout for the boat that had been named, and let them know if they saw them pass.

In Blakes, we reckoned that if we got an emergency message about someone first thing in the morning, we could usually contact them by lunchtime.

In 1971, the use of mobile phones was still more than 20 years in the future, but we had a system which worked!

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Fascinating film, many thanks to Carol and to Trambo for posting the link. Much credit to Video Impact too who very kindly transfer the films for Carol. Agree with Vaughan, much of interest. The old Wayford Bridge which you don't see very often. I was fascinated by the bit of portage towards the end, it looks as if they pulled the dinghy round the lock at Coltishall as that bridge is above it. They got around to the remains of the mill too. Nice shot of the Horseshoes open and doing a brisk trade. it must have been closed for years now. Lots of flappy stuff around too!

Wonderful bit of nostalgia. :default_beerchug:

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8 hours ago, Vaughan said:

 A lovely piece of film and many thanks to Carol and Trambo for sharing it with us. There is so much to discuss and recognise here but let's start with a quick one :

At 1m 23s you can see an SOS board on the bank at Ant mouth. Who remembers those? They were placed at all the major locations around the Broads and if there was an emergency message for someone on holiday on a hire boat, the river inspectors would chalk on the name of the boat and the name of the hirer. The message was also passed to all Blakes and Hoseasons yards. So if you saw your name, you just had to phone the Commissioners, or your own boatyard. Other boats, seeing the message, would keep a lookout for the boat that had been named, and let them know if they saw them pass.

In Blakes, we reckoned that if we got an emergency message about someone first thing in the morning, we could usually contact them by lunchtime.

In 1971, the use of mobile phones was still more than 20 years in the future, but we had a system which worked!

The BBC also broadcast SOS messages for people on holiday etc to make contact for over 70 years with the news. It had all the "formatting" and precision of other broadcasts like the Shipping one.

On the subject of mobile phones, I had my first in 1985 it was by Racal Vodaphone and when you took it out of your car it was like carrying a car battery. By 87 I was using a Motorola/Storno famous brick. Trouble was not many others had them but you did not have to get out and use a phone box when travelling.

On a personal note the effects of Monday 19th October 1987 would have been even worse if I had not had mobile communications.

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Thanks for sharing the film Fred :default_beerchug:

I'm pleased that it has gone down well. It's not the greatest quality bit of film, but it is interesting ..... these old film's are all interesting! I hadn't spotted the SOS board. I always say that you spot something different every time you watch. This is the first of two cine film's from the same (sadly unknown) family. They returned the following year on one of the Aston Mars class and cruised the southern rivers. I hope to get that one edited and online next week.

I also dropped a bundle of new films gathered over the previous year over to Kieron at Video Impact a few weeks ago. More 60s and 70s 8mm film's plus two (as yet) unseen 16mm colour film's, one of which appears to have been taken on one of Woods Delights. Those are either 50s or 60s. What I'm most excited about though is a 1930s 9.5MM reel which, I think, may be one of the early Blake's promo films. Fingers crossed! In the meantime I've still got lots more old photos to get onto the website which I will start making my way through over the coming months.

 

Carol

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A couple of weeks ago we spent a night (and a great meal) in the Recruiting Sergeant before we went back to France and I took a walk down to Horstead mill the next morning. It is lovely down there and you can walk down one side of the river and back up the other, from Coltishall road bridge. I didn't see an otter at the time but there were signs of them, on the bank.

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There are portage steps on either side of the lock, so it would be well worth a trip up there in a dinghy, if you are young and fit!

And what else did I notice?

At 0 : 34 is St Benets Level mill before it was restored. The other mill later on is at OBY, when it still had the sail spars and the fantail on. Hopefully this mill will also be restored soon.

At 1 : 01 we see serious wash erosion at St Benets, presumably caused by the wash from the "Queen of the Broads" seen at 9 : 55! I was once swamped by the wash from that thing, when driving a launch just downstream of Wroxham Broad. The squat effect between that long boat and the bank, at that speed, made a "tidal wave" about 4ft high! That boat was always a blasted nuisance on the river.

How about the lovely old reed cutter, at 7 : 03? these machines used to pass on the upper reaches of the rivers, including the Yare, about 3 times every season. Do they still have them now, or don't the reeds grow as much?

And at 8 : 57 I noticed a Blakes flag on the moorings opposite Porter and Haylett, upstream of Wroxham Broad. Yet another public mooring, leased and provided free by Blakes, in those days.

I was going to make a list of all the old boats I recognised, but I very soon ran out of paper!

 

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On 31/10/2018 at 12:36, trambo said:

but I think my favourite is at 6:09 when I thought a Woods ex Landamore was coming into picture but it was actualy Conquest  formerly the Ace of Hearts.

That is indeed the Ace of Hearts!

Here she is, one year old, in 1948. Also in the photo is the bungalow on the front where the Hart family lived after they moved across to the island in 1845. John Hart had previously been the landlord of the Three Tuns, now known as the Rushcutters.

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This is as she was built, with a short canopy over a central wheelhouse. The galley was right aft and the saloon had seats either side which pulled out into single berths at night.

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She was converted in 1956 to a larger sliding canopy, over a central saloon, which gave an aft cabin with 2 berths, a toilet and shower on one side, and a galley on the other.

She was already in building when my parents bought the yard in 1946 and started hire in the season of 1947. Being so soon after the War I don't know what kind of wood they used, but she had a tendency to rot and we were always replacing planks, every winter.

She had a bit of a chequered history and was sunk 3 times on hire (to my knowledge), the worst of which was on Breydon, when she grounded on the old "Dickey Works" jetty at Berney Arms, which was submerged at high tide. When the tide went down, three of the posts of the old quay came up through the hull and sank her.

Russel Newby, our foreman boatbuilder, crawled out onto the mud in his waders and sawed the posts off from underneath with a hand saw. He then did what he could to patch around the posts from inside, towed her back to Thorpe and hauled her out in the sheds, with the posts still in the hull.

When Ladbrokes took over Hearts after Jenners closed down, they re-named her "Heart of Oak", but I don't what happened after that, as by 1971 I had left Norfolk to go and serve a Grateful and Gracious Queen.

At least I hope she was grateful!

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Great photos and info Vaughan. Spent a week on her in 1965 as part of a school trip when we won a pen knife each for the best written log which was judged I believe by your father and Harry Brooker. The next time I saw her was in 1967 at Brundall as she turned at the old Tidecraft stores. Can't tell you how gutted I was  to see she was flying Jenners flag, just didn't look right!

Picture is of the crew from the above school trip. We usually had the King (1962-64) but Bill Waterhouse (centre) who organised the trips went for the Ace this year. Photo was taken with a Kodak Brownie 127 and look at the age of my other ancient camera on deck, remember it took a very large negative but buying the film was difficult even then.

Ace of Hearts

Fred

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I took a photo of a bird last year, which a forum member identified as a reed bunting.  The photo was originally posted in my account of our trip on Lullaby July last year. Taken from the path that leads from Womack Dyke northward along the Thurne.

Helen

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On 31/10/2018 at 20:25, brundallNavy said:

Spotted a Reed Bunting, sadly none left now.

Lots of Reed Buntings still around Upton Marsh, Hickling, Carlton & Oulton Marshes and Strumpshaw Fen too, at least there were, in early summer this year.

Upton Marshes, Reed Bunting (male) 2..JPG

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Thanks Trambo, that's a great photo!

So you were from Pensby school? I remember Bill Waterhouse very well. He and my father became great friends over the years. He usually brought 2 parties every year, in spring and autumn and then came with his wife for his own holiday in August, usually on the 4 berth Six of Hearts.

We were talking about school parties on a different thread a few days ago and this photo shows how very important they really were. I wonder how many of those boys have gone on to become regular hirers in their own right? Maybe some of them even own their own boats?

Very happy memories!

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On 01/11/2018 at 17:02, Vaughan said:

How about the lovely old reed cutter, at 7 : 03? these machines used to pass on the upper reaches of the rivers, including the Yare, about 3 times every season. Do they still have them now, or don't the reeds grow as much?

I have just read this again and of course I meant weed cutter, not reed cutter! The long thin weeds used to grow right up to the surface if they were not regularly cut.

I have also remembered another time when the Ace of Hearts got sunk. She ran over one of the channel marker buoys on Rockland Broad and got its mooring chain wound round the prop. This hauled the anchor weight up out of the mud and drove it through the bottom of the boat. She needed a new prop shaft as well, after that one!

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Yes it was Pensby School, I think we used to be a fleet of five. Each boat was mastered be either two teachers or our parents. Bill Waterhouse was one of my favourite teachers and taught a subject I seemed very good at, Rural Studies. Strange subject for a school on the Wirral and not much use a I ended up selling ready mixed concrete!  One thing I remember about Bill is he only had one tie for school use and that was the Blakes tie. It certainly was from these trips that both my dad and I got our love of the Broads.

Fred

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