Potter Bridge Closed To Road Traffic

[Meantime]

If you look at the following picture taken from Horsey windmill you will see a Lowliner 38. When is the last time you saw one of them above that bridge?

 

[rightsaidfred]

I have no wish to spoil a good moan, I to have a boat that used to go through regularly and I agree the bridge itself is of little value, while I am no great fan of saving things for savings sake it seems a bit of a contradiction when many who want to preserve the heritage of the Broads and its boats etc. are calling for another part of the country`s Heritage to be altered or removed, as the BA and navigation itself are not involved in the preservation or maintenance of the bridge it being a highways/English Heritage issue none of what we say is going to make one iota of difference.

Fred 

[FlyingFortress]

1 hour ago, Meantime said:

It was 2006. I think that was the year we bumped into you (not literally) at Catfield. We arrived back at Potter the next day and you were just in front of us for the queue for the pilot, which enabled me to get that picture.

If you zoom in on the picture below, whilst not the best quality, I still reckon there was about 6ft10in. or 11in.

Thanks MT 👍

As you say there was plenty of clearance going back through.

I have another pic I took coming the other way which shows us almost totally filling the arch and with less than an inch at the top corners of the housing. A boat like mine and yours has the corners shaved off in the design to allow passage through arched bridges just like the picture above.

I have no doubt your date of 2006 is correct so it could have only been 4 or 5 years previous that we were through there on our Calypso which was much higher and had square corners. 😳

 In fact I think we bought our Calypso in 2000

[FlyingFortress]

1 hour ago, rightsaidfred said:

I have no wish to spoil a good moan, I to have a boat that used to go through regularly and I agree the bridge itself is of little value, while I am no great fan of saving things for savings sake it seems a bit of a contradiction when many who want to preserve the heritage of the Broads and its boats etc. are calling for another part of the country`s Heritage to be altered or removed, as the BA and navigation itself are not involved in the preservation or maintenance of the bridge it being a highways/English Heritage issue none of what we say is going to make one iota of difference.

Fred 

Good point Fred.

Just couldn't help adding my opinion to Griff's.

I can't see anything being done about that blooming bridge except for shutting it off permanently to road traffic. 😣

[Bernard]

In the early 90s we used to be able to take a canoe through the smaller arches (I was a bit smaller then)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, rightsaidfred said:

it seems a bit of a contradiction when many who want to preserve the heritage of the Broads and its boats etc. are calling for another part of the country`s Heritage to be altered or removed,

Take your point Fred, but what about the old bridges at Acle, Ludham and Wayford, which have all been replaced over the years, due to road improvements?  They were all of the same type of arched bridge as Potter or Wroxham.  In the case of Potter, the bridge was never replaced because the old railway provided a convenient bypass.  There has been talk of a road bypass to Woxham in most of my living memory but sure enough, it has never happened.

Anyone remember the old hump back, going over Wayford Bridge?  It wasn't that long ago.

 

 

 

Photos from Wherries and waterways, by Robert Malster.

[FlyingFortress]

20 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Take your point Fred, but what about the old bridges at Acle, Ludham and Wayford, which have all been replaced over the years, due to road improvements?  They were all of the same type of arched bridge as Potter or Wroxham.  In the case of Potter, the bridge was never replaced because the old railway provided a convenient bypass.  There has been talk of a road bypass to Woxham in most of my living memory but sure enough, it has never happened.

Anyone remember the old hump back, going over Wayford Bridge?  It wasn't that long ago.

 

 

 

Photos from Wherries and waterways, by Robert Malster.

Don't remember them Vaughan only seen the pictures like above.

But you do have a point 👍

[FlyingFortress]

2 hours ago, Meantime said:

If you look at the following picture taken from Horsey windmill you will see a Lowliner 38. When is the last time you saw one of them above that bridge?

 

Can't see your boat in that pic MT 😳

[rightsaidfred]

44 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Take your point Fred, but what about the old bridges at Acle, Ludham and Wayford, which have all been replaced over the years, due to road improvements?  They were all of the same type of arched bridge as Potter or Wroxham.  In the case of Potter, the bridge was never replaced because the old railway provided a convenient bypass.  There has been talk of a road bypass to Woxham in most of my living memory but sure enough, it has never happened.

Anyone remember the old hump back, going over Wayford Bridge?  It wasn't that long ago.

 

 

 

Photos from Wherries and waterways, by Robert Malster.

Only difference is English Heritage.

Fred

[Meantime]

1 hour ago, FlyingFortress said:

Can't see your boat in that pic MT 😳

Want to bet on that?  I reckon I can see mine, or at least a bit of it!

[FlyingFortress]

19 minutes ago, Meantime said:

Want to bet on that?  I reckon I can see mine, or at least a bit of it!

Far right of the pic. Just the stern.

Should have gone to Specsavers 🫣

[Meantime]

9 minutes ago, FlyingFortress said:

Far right of the pic. Just the stern.

Should have gone to Specsavers 🫣

That's the one! 

[grendel]

7 hours ago, Vaughan said:

What is it supposed to be famous for?

I guess its famous for being a pain in the stern sheets for any boat too large to get through it for the last few centuries.

Best we hire a descendant of good old king Canute and get them to tell the water levels to stop rising.

I think what we should hope for may be a new ice age where the water will be captured in the ice and the sea levels will drop, if it goes on long enough the ice sheets may work their way down and form over norfolk, and when they eventually recede, Potter heigham bridge will no longer be an obstacle (of course there may not be a river anymore either)

[marshman]

Seeing as though Griff thinks that what I said in one of my posts is a load of what does roses a lot of good, and he is entitled to do just that, perhaps I could elaborate just what I mean - and by the way I have no wish to stop anyone going up there, its just the mode of transport! And I don't think I am a Nimby either - by all means let people go and see what I have seen so perhaps they could appreciate all the more why that area has become so special to me and why it could be to them if they slowed down a bit to stop, look and above all enjoy, what it has to offer.

Probably around ten years ago when I was younger, and when my son had the spare time so I could "borrow" him,  we used to regularly hire one of Colin Buttifants boat with the objective of gently exploring that part of the world and my most special of areas, Meadow Dyke. Sailing Meadow Dyke so many times has left a unique and lasting impression of serenity and peace.

One day we "moored" by the entrance to Horsey for a couple of hours and it was one of those warm, lazy days with just a gentle breeze from the SW leaving Horsey a virtual millpond and over that period we were privileged, and excited to see amongst other things ,and apart from the normal common old marsh harriers as ever, the following

Cranes flying low overhead

 A Bittern

A pair of otters close by

Kingfisher(s)

Swallowtail butterflies

Norfolk Hawkers

And a water vole playing nearby

Nothing came past to disturb the peace and for me who has seen them all before, I agree nothing special - except that it was crammed into just 90 mins! Thats what has made that area so very very special and a place that people can go and see what a special attraction the Broads became to our forebears over 100 years ago when most of what I saw was the norm.

I just don't believe that opening it up further to bigger boats accompanied by more people totally disinterested in the special magic would be a plus - as I said earlier you can still go and see what is to be seen already but use the means already available if you want to savour the uniqueness of the landscape and its inhabitants now only more rarely seen in the rest of the Broads.

Well, thats my view!!!! And I know others think differently!!

 

 

 

[ChrisB]

Built around the same time, Crowland's Trinity Bridge crossed the Welland and a tributary.  But the drainage projects and redirection of rivers during the mid 1600s left it high and dry.

 

[rightsaidfred]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

I guess its famous for being a pain in the stern sheets for any boat too large to get through it for the last few centuries.

Best we hire a descendant of good old king Canute and get them to tell the water levels to stop rising.

I think what we should hope for may be a new ice age where the water will be captured in the ice and the sea levels will drop, if it goes on long enough the ice sheets may work their way down and form over norfolk, and when they eventually recede, Potter heigham bridge will no longer be an obstacle (of course there may not be a river anymore either)

Many a true word spoken in jest

Fred

[Vaughan]

2 hours ago, marshman said:

Cranes flying low overhead

 A Bittern

A pair of otters close by

Kingfisher(s)

Swallowtail butterflies

Norfolk Hawkers

And a water vole playing nearby

Marshman, I quite agree with you, and those of us who dearly love the wildlife of the Broads can always find it when we want to.  But not especially, nor exclusively, on Hickling Broad.

I enjoyed all of your list above, the last time I spent the night on Rockland Broad, in the lilies on a mudweight.  Apart from a kingfisher of course, as they don't nest in the reeds.  They can be found a little further up from Brundall, in the earth banks. So in place of kingfishers, I enjoyed reed warblers and cuckoos.  A bittern was booming all night in the reeds, right at the edge of the Broad.  What I took for damsonflies may have been Norfolk Hawkers but in any case they are well known around Strumpshaw fen, very close by.

It has been proved many times, including in wildlife films by such as Philip Wayre and Ted Ellis, that wildlife is carrying on quite happily all around us, all the time, no matter how "overcrowded" we may think it has become.  All we have to do is take the trouble to notice it.

If you get up before dawn in the spring, you are bound to hear a bittern boom on Malthouse Broad, as well as Salhouse and Wroxham. But if your day doesn't start until after 2 cups of coffee and a couple of "fags", then you have missed them!

[marshman]

Vaughan - you would certainly notice a Norfolk Hawker!! They are pretty rare these days but are, on average, about twice the size of a dainty damselfly!!

At rest damselflies fold their wings back along their body whilst dragonflies leave their much larger wings outstretched. A Norfolk Hawker is generally all brown and has a wingspan of around 10cm - however unless you look at one in detail there are other Hawkers it can be confused with. Dainty they are not though!

[Gracie]

Even though we all have seen it hundreds of times, the wild life on the Broads is special.

We were moored tied to a tree on the stretch up to Coltishall, the sun was starting to set as I fished before dark, on the opposite side were two Kingfishers fishing for their supper. I watched them for ages not because they were having better luck than me catching fish they were just a sight to behold. The river was like a mirror, it took my breath away. I don't think I'll ever tire of those moments on the rivers x

[BroadAmbition]

Amongst many specialist training duties I did in the RN.  One of the more unusual courses I did was demolitions.

I probably did the course to get out of some other odious duty or task thinking I would never have to use that particular 'Skill' and besides it was a couple of days away from normal ship alongside tasks

That theory went to pot during a visit to the Virgin islands when we had to carry out a disaster relief operation after hurricane Allen had devastated St Croix in 1979.  It went wrong again during my time in the Falklands, proper dodgy that was

Now though maybe, just maybe I can at last put my training to a worthwhile cause. 

Anyone know where I can get hold of some Cordtex or Semtex? 

Griff

[MargeandParge]

Are you trying to say this ancient monument should be shared among all the local villages 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[Gracie]

Hmm, I know I go on about leaving the old bridge alone but with what I think Griff is suggesting would allow us all to cruise that beautiful stretch up to Hickling......I don't suppose I'd miss it that much  x

[FlyingFortress]

10 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

Amongst many specialist training duties I did in the RN.  One of the more unusual courses I did was demolitions.

I probably did the course to get out of some other odious duty or task thinking I would never have to use that particular 'Skill' and besides it was a couple of days away from normal ship alongside tasks

That theory went to pot during a visit to the Virgin islands when we had to carry out a disaster relief operation after hurricane Allen had devastated St Croix in 1979.  It went wrong again during my time in the Falklands, proper dodgy that was

Now though maybe, just maybe I can at last put my training to a worthwhile cause. 

Anyone know where I can get hold of some Cordtex or Semtex? 

Griff

Can't help you locate anything.

But I am prepared to join the long line of folks willing to help you carry the stuff 😁

[Smoggy]

I look forward to seeing the potterhamoid meteor shower every spring for years to come as the remains orbit the earth.....

[Mouldy]

On a more serious note, there was an article in the EDP about a week ago, stating that following underwater examination, defects in the structure had been found below the waterline.  Surely, this will mean closure to navigation whilst repairs are underway?

Will necessary repairs necessitate some kind of ‘dry dock’ being created around the bridge, or can they be effected underwater and what will happen to the likes of Martham Boats if the bridge is closed to river users?

Given how long repairs take to other issues that affect navigation, like repairs to Reedham and Somerleyton bridges, I wonder how much pressure the BA will exert to ensure that whatever is necessary, is completed expediently, although I think we all know the answer to that one.