Wherries

[dom]

20 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

12’6” might have been ok to Aylsham, I think the narrowest lock was 12’8 on that stretch. Fully laden 3’6” might have been drawn including a slipping keel but I should think the keel would have been removed up toward the head of navigation.

Surely that'd mean you'd need 30ft or so minimum width for two vessels to pass though? I did think maybe they ran in one direction at certain times, but over the distance involved and with the speed they'd travel, I can't see that being feasible. Has the river really lost that much width since 1912? They must have been tough blokes too. Presumably they'd have to spend a lot of time quanting with that little width.

[Turnoar]

The navigation above Coltishall is documented as being somewhat tedious and from Buxton restricted to the smaller wherries and it was probably a single file affair akin to the North Walsham canal. The navigation was lost in 1912 but from my memory of a canoe trip up to Oxnead a few years ago it seemed wide enough to pass in places, it was winter though and wet!

[marshman]

My apologies to you all and Dom - the restrictions by the lock sizes I gave were for the NWDC canal, not the Aylsham Navigation!!

They were 54' length and width 13'9" up to Buxton and 12'8" above, But Dom you have made one classic error in assuming that the two surviving wherries were typical - even in those days they were big and a more typical wherry could have been perhaps nearer 40'. Indeed some of the tiddlers were only around 25/30' long plenty small enough for the width of the navigation above Coltishall - walk it these days and you will see that it was plenty large enough for them to pass!

Don't forget the winter occupation of wherrymen, was cutting any trees down  - it has only relatively recently the luxuriant riverside growth has appeared! They did that to reduce the quanting!!

And talking of excess water which is covered at length in another thread , nothing compares with the storm of 26th August 1912 when the whole of the area was devastated. 15,000 people had properties destroyed especially in Norwich and it effectively destroyed the Aylsham Navigation. Buxton Lock was destroyed, famously trapping the wherry Zulu, and road bridges at Coltishall and Ludham Bridge were washed away. That day over 8" of rain fell in under 24 hours! Some storm - bet they would have named that one!!

[MauriceMynah]

Yes, I wonder what they'd have called it.

[Bikertov]

39 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

Yes, I wonder what they'd have called it.

They were built of sterner stuff in those non-woke days, so it would probably have been call "Storm In-a-Tea-Cup"

[dom]

Growing up, me and my mates all had quite strong Norfolk accents. The old boy I lived next to though was on a whole other level. Even being accustomed to the accent, I still only managed to catch about 20% of what he said. Judging by the way he spoke, I doubt they named the storm and probably just said "cor blast me bor, that were a rum 'un" or words to that effect, quite possibly with a good few expletives chucked in.

5 hours ago, marshman said:

My apologies to you all and Dom - the restrictions by the lock sizes I gave were for the NWDC canal, not the Aylsham Navigation!!

Something you said gave me a slight suspicion that was the case. There was always quite a lot of chat locally about NWDC and we were fairly familiar with it as kids. I think when I was at school in Stalham, we even did a field trip out to study it. We also played and explored at Ebrige and Briggate mills and Honing Bridge.

The Aylsham navigation though seems to have virtually lapsed from people's thoughts. I can remember being in Buxton mill in the 70s when it was a slightly hippyish craft centre and looking out on the mill pond wth my dad explaining how it used to be navigable. I seem to remember back then before the fire, there was a big glass window high up which always gave me vertigo.

We also used to fish and swim at Horstead mill. The tale of what happened to the lock seems to have been largely lost amongst the locals though, I guess probably due to the fire. We always tended to be more interested in jumping off the arches. I still always visualise it in my head with the ground floor and arches still intact.

I also used to fish at Mayton Bridge (on the road from Little Hautbois to Mayton Wood tip) and there's barely 18" of water up there, but on a hard bottom rather than silt, which suggests it's probably not dramatically changed. I really struggle to picture what that stretch must have been like with boats on it.

It's a shame, and actually quite surprising that they didn't rebuild Coltishall lock. Would be great to be able to head up to Buxton under power, even if it was only in the smallest vessels. I loved canoeing as a kid. I keep promising myself one day I'll try and get back to doing it again. If I ever do, I'll have to head up above Horstead.

 

[LizG]

I heard via my brother that in the 1912 storm, the effect was like a tsunami as the water came down the Bure taking out anything in its way. By the time it got to Wroxham the water had spread out across the marshes. He was told this by his boatyard friend whose father survived as he was upstairs in their cottage. Pretty sure I've got the story correct

[dom]

One thing which has only just occurred to me is that a lot of non-essential infrastructure probably wasn't replaced because of the fact it was only two years later when WW1 started. I guess apart from anything else, it'd have meant labour was in very short supply and limited to food production. Then they had Spanish flu. If you look at the mess we've just been through, it must have been a pretty rough 10 or so years they had to contend with.

[marshman]

You are probably right but the death knell of canals etc was well under way by then as the railways had even arrived in Norfolk! Even Norfolk was covered in railways by then and transport by water, with a degree of uncertainty attached, was undoubtedly second best!