WRC

[JennyMorgan]

The Waveney River Centre came into being during the 1970's. Prior to that it was the Waveney Yacht Station and Waveney Hotel, owned by a Mr & Mrs Wilson, emigrants from Lincolnshire. Clever bloke had a friend or relation who was involved with BOAC and between them they installed half an airliner cabin in the back bar. Very clever, the glamour of flying attracted his clients and on the hour another 'flight' would be announced and more customers would sit down to an another innovation of the day,  microwaved airline dinners served by hostesses suitably dressed as cabin staff.  

[AdnamsGirl]

Really? That's wonderful. Years ahead of his time with Nuke'n'Puke pub grub then!

 

Peter ... please get on with writing that book of your memoires of Broadland

 

Carol

[JanetAnne]

I remember WRC doing a very swish chicken and chips in a basket (and it was a real basket) way back in the early 70's. It was the talk of the area this new fangled food. What would they think of next!

 

[JennyMorgan]

Just a thought, it was a Mr & Mrs Wilkinson, not Wilson.

Carol, really, and really rather clever. The meals came ready prepared from the airline caterer, The whole timetable and number of covers were controlled. No washing up either. When we bought the place we stripped the 'plane' out and took the idea to a holiday camp where it was a great success for another two years after which we sold the 'plane' to a collector.

7 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

I remember WRC doing a very swish chicken and chips in a basket (and it was a real basket) way back in the early 70's. It was the talk of the area this new fangled food. What would they think of next!

 

Scampi & chips and prawn cocktails. We also did a deep fried plaice & chips which was also a great success. 

Another WRC 1970's thing were the Kray Brothers, out in the depths of Norfolk would you believe. One of their honchos turned up and tried to sell us the idea of us being protected. Did we worry, did we heck, we laughed him off the premises! The East Coast holiday industry has its own Mafia and one of the Krays was in Norwich Prison at the time. We never did have a return visit!

[JennyMorgan]

Another innovation of the day, besides microwaves, were small black & white televisions on hire cruisers, the height of modernity, three channels to choose from too. How the world has moved on in forty years!

[ranworthbreeze]

10 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Another innovation of the day, besides microwaves, were small black & white televisions on hire cruisers, the height of modernity, three channels to choose from too. How the world has moved on in forty years!

Hi Peter,

I guess the world has not moved on so much, yes updated TV's, larger, colour, flat or even curved screens. Sadly the same old repeats, soaps or just cheap television.

Regards

Alan

[AdnamsGirl]

It was Mr Wilkinson who also introduced a fleet of hire cruisers named after Whitbread beers too according to an old newspaper article ... I wrote about it on the Broadland Memories blog a few years ago:  http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/blog/2012/07/booze-cruisers/

 

Carol

[BroadScot]

10 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

I remember WRC doing a very swish chicken and chips in a basket (and it was a real basket) way back in the early 70's. It was the talk of the area this new fangled food. What would they think of next!

 

The Bridge Inn at Acle followed suit JA, it was our lunch before leaving for our holiday on an AJ Alan Johnson boat! They must have used a lot of grease paper for the baskets! and even MORE quarter Chickens!

Iain.

[BroadScot]

2 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

Another innovation of the day, besides microwaves, were small black & white televisions on hire cruisers, the height of modernity, three channels to choose from too. How the world has moved on in forty years!

We paid £10 deposit on those B&W TVs and IF you were very lucky, you got all three channels!

Iain

[JanetAnne]

Anyone else remember the 'O-so-kool' fridges? Now there was cutting edge technology!

Isotherm eh? You've never had it so good... lol

[JennyMorgan]

8 hours ago, JanetAnne said:

Anyone else remember the 'O-so-kool' fridges? Now there was cutting edge technology!

Isotherm eh? You've never had it so good... lol

Are those the jobs where you poured a cup full of water into a reservoir on the top? Fat lot of good on a sailing boat though, every time there was a puff of wind the reservoir emptied  into the bilge! Then along came ice-packs and the swap scheme, great in principle and a pain the nether regions for boatyards. 

[BroadScot]

Well we must have had a "MODERN" fridge, a gas one, only trouble was, if the stern door was open and the wind was up it blew out the pilot light. I lost count of the times holding the little red button and the spinning flint start to relight it on ones knees!!! From memory I think it was an Electrolux.

Iain

[JanetAnne]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Are those the jobs where you poured a cup full of water into a reservoir on the top? Fat lot of good on a sailing boat though, every time there was a puff of wind the reservoir emptied  into the bilge! Then along came ice-packs and the swap scheme, great in principle and a pain the nether regions for boatyards. 

I thought you saily types just used to hang the wine in a net off the transom to cool as you drifted

[BroadScot]

1 minute ago, JanetAnne said:

I thought you saily types just used to hang the wine in a net off the transom to cool as you drifted

Never mind the saily types JA!! My father in law kept his cans of ale in a net bag as an extra fridge!

Iain

[Poppy]

16 minutes ago, JanetAnne said:

I thought you saily types just used to hang the wine in a net off the transom to cool as you drifted

I wouldn't risk that, for fear of having my bottle 'throtched' by an errant 'stinky'.     

[JanetAnne]

2 hours ago, Poppy said:

I wouldn't risk that, for fear of having my bottle 'throtched' by an errant 'stinky'.     

These days you'd be more worried about snagging the net on the bottom chap!

Am I the only one to imagine the river bottoms must look like a game of tic tac toe with all those keels carving their way back and forward through the putty 

[JanetAnne]

On 11/12/2015 at 11:09 PM, JennyMorgan said:

The Waveney River Centre came into being during the 1970's. Prior to that it was the Waveney Yacht Station and Waveney Hotel, owned by a Mr & Mrs Wilson, emigrants from Lincolnshire. Clever bloke had a friend or relation who was involved with BOAC and between them they installed half an airliner cabin in the back bar. Very clever, the glamour of flying attracted his clients and on the hour another 'flight' would be announced and more customers would sit down to an another innovation of the day,  microwaved airline dinners served by hostesses suitably dressed as cabin staff.  

Just noticed the 'Ford Jenkins' in the corner of your post card Peter. We had a family member who worked there and used to browse the archives upstairs when given the chance. She always said there was more history upstairs than old Jack Rose could have dreamed of! I wonder what happened to it all? Of course the shop was turned into one of the obligatory fast food places we now seem to need dozens of in every high street.

[JennyMorgan]

I know Ford's son Peter well. Apparently some stuff suffered water damage which is something of a shame. Peter Jenkins has allowed access to the collection but the family really does not seem to have any real interest in what they have. The other collection of great local interest was that of Yallop of Gt Yarmouth, it included a great deal of Broads stuff, that largely ended up in a skip!