Broads Lettercard

[floydraser]

Sorry (not very) if this has been shown before by someone else but... I was having a tiny clearout today and came accross a box with some old family archive material inside. I found this lettercard which was sent by my uncle to my grandparents. He finishes with "P.S. Please keep the stamp." Well they did, and the card obviously. But in removing the stamp when he got home he also removed the frank with the date on. I thought you may enjoy.

Would you believe it? I chopped that last pic off to rotate it upright, saved it as such but it won't display upright. Ah well, you'll just have to heave your screens sideways.

[FairTmiddlin]

To save a community of stiff necks

[floydraser]

42 minutes ago, FairTmiddlin said:

To save a community of stiff necks

Spoilsport! 

[Broads01]

I always like seeing old photos of Salhouse before the mooring quays were created, they remind me of what it was like when I first visited as a child. On the Salhouse photo, what was the hut on the left?

On the Thurne photo, what were the buildings close to the mill?

[dom]

8 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

On the Salhouse photo, what was the hut on the left?

If you look at old maps, there were multiple boathouses on both Salhouse broads up to at least the 1950s.

[webntweb]

26 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

I always like seeing old photos of Salhouse before the mooring quays were created, they remind me of what it was like when I first visited as a child.

September 81

[dom]

Whenever I see photos like that, it always has me frantically scanning the boats in the background. We used to regularly take one or two boats down to Salhouse sunday afternoons in the 80s. Our spot was always mudweighting in the bay at the back - it wasn't unheard of for me to go swimming on warmer days. I've only got one photo of my dad's boat and live in hope that someone took another at some point.

[Vaughan]

What a lovely memento and thanks a lot for posting it.

For a date, I think it is pretty old, probably the early 50s.

I notice no boatyard buildings in the photo of Ludham bridge and It also seems to be before the boatyard development, at Acle. There is a predominance, it seems, of yachts over motor boats and a lot of those smaller cruiser designs were gone before the start of the 60s.  In fact, a large proportion of the boats were built before the war.  At Acle I notice a Sabrina class yacht and the ex Gorleston lifeboat, "Friend of All Nations".  One of the boats at Salhouse is the 5 or 6 of Hearts, also built pre-war.  At Oulton, there are still rowing skiffs for hire.   And look at all those boats moored on mud weights, on Malthouse Broad.

What strikes me most is the river banks. All the popular moorings were just earth banks, with a footpath through the grass along the top of the bank.  Hence the expression "along the rhond".  I like the cattle, grazing on the bank at Thurne, right next to Curtis's Stores on the staithe.  Quite a common sight then and you had to watch out for deep holes in the bank, where their hooves had sunk into the soft earth.

This was the Broads of my childhood and it was a wonderful place.  I sometimes feel privileged to be old enough to remember it when it was at its best.

[Vaughan]

Looking again at Oulton Broad, I see that the yacht moored on the central pontoon is the famous River Cruiser no 7, "Forester".  There also seem to be a lot of yachts moored on the buoys outside Trumans yard and the maltings.  So I would guess this was taken during Oulton regatta week.  Moored to the left is one of the Foam class from Jack Powles and on the other side are a couple of varnished Windboats.  A lot of yards had their boats in varnish in those days but in the Ludham bridge photo, the boat coming in to moor, towing a dinghy, seems to be a Herbert Woods Delight, in varnish.  I don't remember that!

[grendel]

45 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

the boat coming in to moor, towing a dinghy, seems to be a Herbert Woods Delight, in varnish.

it has the look of a delight, but the back deck is curved not flat and I dont see the steering quadrant that a delight would have on the back deck.

[Vaughan]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

it has the look of a delight, but the back deck is curved not flat and I dont see the steering quadrant that a delight would have on the back deck.

Hmm . . .

Possibly another "clone" then.  It was fairly common in those days for yards to copy the designs of others.  I know for a fact that Stalham Yacht Station's big old cruisers, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, were direct copies of a Brooms Admiral!

[floydraser]

Well I didn't expect such a response but I'm glad you are enjoying the pics. I have been in conference with my sister who has the family history on file and my uncle was born in November 1935 and moved to South Africa in the 1950s we think. So most probably early fifties for the lettercard?

 

[Vaughan]

9 minutes ago, floydraser said:

So most probably early fifties for the lettercard?

Yes, and in which case it would be rare to have colour photos.  I imagine this might have been printed by Jarrolds, in Norwich.

[LizG]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

it has the look of a delight, but the back deck is curved not flat and I dont see the steering quadrant that a delight would have on the back deck.

If I am looking at the same boat, it is varnished - Delights were never varnished.  Possibly a Star from Powles?  There is a varnished Martham Boat in the Thurne picture as well.  There is definitely the rear end of a Delight in the 4 picture card which includes Ranworth.

[floydraser]

21 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Yes, and in which case it would be rare to have colour photos.  I imagine this might have been printed by Jarrolds, in Norwich.

Correct. I didn't know that until you prompted me to look. You win Vaughan, if you send me your address by PM I'll send you the card for your collection.

[floydraser]

10 minutes ago, LizG said:

If I am looking at the same boat, it is varnished - Delights were never varnished.  Possibly a Star from Powles?  There is a varnished Martham Boat in the Thurne picture as well.  There is definitely the rear end of a Delight in the 4 picture card which includes Ranworth.

How did you get a sentence with "rear end" and "delight" past the mods? 

[grendel]

2 hours ago, floydraser said:

How did you get a sentence with "rear end" and "delight" past the mods? 

possibly because I knew exactly what she meant

[Broads01]

19 hours ago, webntweb said:

September 81

Lovely photo, Roy. My first ever visit to the Broads was the month before. I recall seeing the mooring quays for the first time in 1986.

[bucket]

19 minutes ago, Broads01 said:

Lovely photo, Roy. My first ever visit to the Broads was the month before. I recall seeing the mooring quays for the first time in 1986.

And mine as well Simon! The 3rd and 4th week of August 1981..........fabulous time!

[LizG]

7 minutes ago, bucket said:

And mine as well Simon! The 3rd and 4th week of August 1981..........fabulous time!

I need to find a photo from my first trip in 1956 - look at my avatar that's another later trip? 

[bucket]

1956 LizG was my first trip anywhere.......it is when I was born.

Like you I have no photos of my first broads trip, or my first hire boat, I didn't own a camera.

[kpnut]

I wish I’d found the Broads in my much younger days. So beautiful and atmospheric.
As a child in the 60’s, we did once go on a canal boat and I have a few nice photos my dad took. Probably a cine film somewhere too. 

[LizG]

1 hour ago, bucket said:

1956 LizG was my first trip anywhere.......it is when I was born.

Like you I have no photos of my first broads trip, or my first hire boat, I didn't own a camera.

There are photos but I don't have them...

[webntweb]

This one is August 83 and we are moored to a quay heading. We were on Sunset Six, the orange and blue AF42 from Beaver Fleet, St Olaves.

[bucket]

9 hours ago, LizG said:

There are photos but I don't have them...

That must be really difficult for you, I wish you all the best in your quest to retrieve them.