Have The Broads Shrunk?

[Coryton]

The Broads are marketed as having 125 miles of navigable waterways.

We bought a tea towel which seems to be a copy of an old railway poster. It mentioned LNER and LMS so (assuming it was a real poster) must have been between the wars or just after.

It mentions 200 miles of safe inland waterways.

I know that there are abandoned locks which increased the navigable areas - but have the Broads really lost 75 miles?

I don't think it's a confusion between miles and kilometres...

Or is it like Heinz 57 varieties?

ch have

[JennyMorgan]

!00 miles going one way, 100 miles coming back equals 200 miles! Misleading marketing regarding the Broads is nothing new. Questionable then, questionable now.

By the way, the Broads is shrinking, depth wise!! 

[vanessan]

There probably are 200 miles of ‘safe inland waterways ‘ but the 75 missing miles are not navigable by anything larger than a kayak. Or maybe a remote controlled toy cruiser. That would be my take on it anyway. 

[TheQ]

And the answer is yes.. However most of the losses were long before The big four railway companies. 

There was a broad opposite Horning over the south bank of the river,  you can still canoe (with permission) through what is a mass of rivulets from decoy broad to halfway along horning lower street. . Lessingham broad is long gone,  and   I believe wherry sized access up muck fleet to Filby broad was once possible. 

Many other broads and navigable rivers have been lost.. 

[Vaughan]

16 minutes ago, TheQ said:

There was a broad opposite Horning over the south bank of the river,  you can still canoe (with permission) through what is a mass of rivulets from decoy broad to halfway along horning lower street.

There was a serious scheme in the 60's, proposed by Blakes, to re-open that navigation and so create a one-way system between Wroxham and Horning. In the days of the wherries it was possible to sail from Wroxham to Horning ferry without sailing on the Bure, and only crossing the river once, at the downstream entrance to Gt Hoveton Broad.

[Timbo]

They touch on disappearing Broads in the episode of the Flying Archaeologist below.

There's also a news report here about Sotshole Broad..