vaughans posts of memories of thorpe and the broads.

[JennyMorgan]

Vaughan, going off piste is the very much a feature of this forum, especially by a certain lady mariner. You are in good company! 

Re hats & spring holidays, autumn ones too, I always carry a fleece hat, being modern, can be really glad of it in the early hours.

[LizG]

These days people holiday all year round but I remember father trying to find a boat to hire for November half term in 1965 when half term was in November. There were hardly any boats left in the water.....and there was no heating on the boat either!

[JennyMorgan]

7 hours ago, jill_R said:

"What's it about holiday hats? "

 

kiss me quick and i'll tell you

Would slow and lingering be okay?

My knees have gone to jelly!

[BroadScot]

1 minute ago, JennyMorgan said:

Would slow and lingering be okay?

My knees have gone to jelly!

Kindly private pm in future JM, remember we have a young lady, who is shy, and may be led astray, with such remarks!

Iain.

[jillR]

these sailors are all the same

[JennyMorgan]

Thorpe of really old!

[JennyMorgan]

Thorpe, not so old:

[JennyMorgan]

Thorpe in Vaughan's time:

[Vaughan]

Thanks JM I haven't seen those before. In the last one, the gunboat is on her permanent mooring. For the first few years she moored outside the office in summer and at the Thorpe Gardens in winter, as there was no mains water on the island then. The church spire was demolished in 1953, so I guess the photo at 1952. the two boats are the Ace, and either the five or six, with their original short wheelhouses. Hearts designed the first fully opening sliding wheelhouse canopy, which nowadays we take for granted. They also installed the first diesel engine in a hire boat, in the Knave of Hearts in 1949.

Notice that the green is only partly quay headed and you can just make out the petrol pumps at the front of the Buck car park. It was a garage as well as a pub in those days.

Otherwise, it doesn't change much!

[LizG]

My contribution from Thorpe taken in 1966 taken with my box Brownie camera.  The boat was Kingfisher

[C.Ricko]

Vaughn, did the main shed ever get locked? 

in my time the door was always left unlocked as some of the longer term staff were convinced that sometimes when it was locked at night it would be unlocked in the morning! 

When the yard closed and my friend lived there the door was wedged firmly open!

 

[Oddfellow]

Thorpe yesterday

[Vaughan]

Ricko, no, in my day the sheds were never locked. Sometimes the main doors were open, with cruisers on the slipway. The gunboat was never locked either. The entrance door had a Yale lock but the key was always left in it. In the 41 years that we lived there, I never had my own key of the gunboat. Not necessary!

I must say we did notice a bit of pilfering in those years after Jenners, when the Wards site was a building site, and no one was living at that end, so kids came over the bridge in the night. There's a thought - now that the basin is inhabited, it is a lot more secure!

[Vaughan]

So, let's go to the northern Broads, and talk of "Perci" Percival. A great friend of my parents, and one of that select body of great men who made the post-war Broads holiday boating industry into what we know today. And who, during the war, built Fairmiles for the Navy.

He was also a "bon vivant" who got into all sorts of scrapes, which never somehow seemed to be his fault. He owned a boat called Kiwi, which was a fairly large twin engined offshore cruiser, capable of fast planing (even on the Bure at night) and having a high superstructure and an aft outside steering position.

One day he was taking Kiwi from Horning, out to sea at Yarmouth and in to Lowestoft, ready for "Sea Week" at the RNSYC. As he approached Yarmouth Yacht Station, there was the usual collection of old boys standing on the Vauxhall bridge waiting to see everyone making a mess of their moorings, and ready to give advice if they felt necessary (as they always did). Percy ignored them of course, but they looked at Kiwi and were sure she was too high to get under the bridge and started waving and yelling, to warn him. One of the old boys yelled so hard that his false teeth came out and landed on the foredeck of Kiwi.

Perci didn't see this, and carried on under the Haven Bridge and down the harbour. As he was passing the Fishwharf he suddenly saw that he was being followed by about 20 old people on bicycles, all yelling and waving at him. He told me "Do you know, I thought for an awful moment that I must have left one of my fenders hanging out." He pulled in and stopped on the quay, whereupon this old bloke jumped onto the foredeck, rammed his teeth back in and thus able to speak, told Perci what he thought of him in a "tongue the clergy did not know"!

He told me of another time when he and a lot of his old friends were having a good Saturday night session in the Black Horse at Hoveton. He was sitting at a table in the bay window and gradually began to realise that he had had so much to drink that he couldn't speak any more. He wanted to say things but the words would not come. He told me - "people were coming up to me and saying, do you want a drink Perci, and all I could do was nod my head."

At least we already knew how he liked his whisky - "Fifty fifty please : lots of water!"

[LizG]

Just as I was about to sort out some of my 2011 Thorpe photos to share, we now skip to Horning........ I remember Kiwi well, moored outside his house which was only three doors down the road........

[LizG]

Well before we go to the Northern Broads for more Tales of the Riverbank, here are some photos for Vaughan and anyone else that loves Thorpe.  Taken around 6pm on a lovely August afternoon in 2011.  My friend Sarah and I had just come up the Waveney from Worlingham, along the New Cut, down the Chet and up to Norwich with the intention of going up to New Mills on a high tide which we did. We had intended to do this part of the trip the next morning but the forecast was too pour with rain and we would have had to have the canopy down.  So by the time we went through Norwich it was rush hour and the light fantastic.  There was so much hustle and bustle above us as we went under the bridges almost silently and hardly anyone noticed us.  The light was still good when we came through Thorpe.  As we approached the Norwich end railway bridge, I could see the bridge height was just over 6' 3" and WR needs that...........Sarah was screaming at me to stop but have no fear we made it with a few inches to spare. My memory was that the other bridge was just a bit higher so I calmed Sarah down and reassured her we would be fine when we came out at the other end.  Here are my photos, I was taking photos constantly of everything.  I hadn't been on the South rivers for a trip like this since before we moved to Norfolk in 1970 so this was a great adventure for me and WR (and Sarah of course).

[Vaughan]

Why was the gunboat called Morning Flight?

My father lived in China and Hong Kong before the war, and often spent weekends duck shooting in the marshes of the New Territories, on the mainland of Kowloon. They had a houseboat called Morning Flight, that they towed up into the marsh with an old steam tug and spent the weekend on board. In the picture of the boat, the man leaning out from the rail with his hat in the air is my father. He swore then, that if he ever had another boat, he would call it Morning Flight.

 

I should explain that duck, in their natural element, are nocturnal. They fly at dusk to a pond where they feed at night - known as a flight pond - and at dawn they fly back to a marsh or meadow where they rest in the daytime. So the best time to shoot them is during a "morning flight" or an "evening flight"

When he bought the gunboat and moved her to Thorpe after the war, he called her Morning Flight. In 1960 he bought the River Cruiser "Amanda" which he re-named Evening Flight.

The photo below shows the two together.

He also had a yellow Labrador gundog called Flight.

 

 

[JennyMorgan]

Evening Flight as is now languishing in a boatshed at the Excelsior Yard on Lake Lothing? An almost complete rebuilt & now owned by Jamie Campbell.

[Springsong]

I was lucky to meet Perci late in his life although still very active. I also remember Kiwi moored outside his house. I spent a fascinating day and night crossing the north sea in the Francis Molly talking and listening to Perci. He was thoroughly charming a great raconteur with that disarming smile always hovering, I miss his company.

[AdnamsGirl]

Forgotten I had this - late 1950s or early 1960s I presume?

 

Shhh ... don't mention houseboats ...

 

Carol

[Vaughan]

Hi Carol,

This is Hearts in 1948 and shows the gunboat being re-fitted after being dragged under the railway bridge. My parents and I (aged 6 months) were living on the houseboat "Misty Morn" in the meantime. In the photo you can also see the wooden bungalow which was home to several generations of the Hart family, before it was replaced by the present building, in about 1953.

The hire boats are all of Hearts fleet at that time. The Ace, at left, was brand new, launched that spring. The Six, at far right, is still going strong and moored in the Thames estuary. Fourth from right is the Four of Hearts, which was sunk by a coaster whilst moored at Buckenham Ferry in 1955, with my parents on board! I have an 8mm cine film of that, which I must send to you.

The Two of Hearts, 3rd from right, was still on hire in the early 80's, much modified, and renamed "Gay Heart".

The Misty Morn was later moored behind the Gunboat, as in your photo, had its own private garden, and sailing dinghy. 2 pubs and shops, on the green, and a 10 minute bus ride from the city centre. Also a short walk to Whitlingham station, for days out to Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Wroxham, and Cromer. There were hundreds of holiday lets like this in those days, and they gave pleasant memories to thousands of happy customers.

 

 

 

[Springsong]

Not Thorpe but certainly the Broads. 

Do you remember this incident Vaughan, I sure you do.May 1957 that's me in the life ring.

[AdnamsGirl]

17 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Fourth from right is the Four of Hearts, which was sunk by a coaster whilst moored at Buckenham Ferry in 1955, with my parents on board! I have an 8mm cine film of that, which I must send to you.

Oooh, that sounds interesting. All cine film gratefully received!

Many thanks Vaughan - brilliant photo showing Morning Flight during her re-fit. So my postcard must be mid 1950s then?

 

Carol

[Vaughan]

2 hours ago, springsong said:

Do you remember this incident Vaughan, I sure you do.May 1957 that's me in the life ring.

I think you are talking about Vestella 6, aren't you? As far as I know, only two hire boats have ever been stolen off the Broads. These people, having hired the boat for a week, got out through Yarmouth un-noticed - maybe at night - and she was eventually found in Ramsgate, under that new name.

I seem to remember that Ted Landamore had to bring her back by road, as she was not supposed to be a sea boat. She was by then though!!

[Vaughan]

Carol, I have a cine film which I have often thought of sending to you. It shows the sinking of the Four of Hearts, the launching of the Princess of Hearts, and then covers a typical turn-round day in 1955, starting with the arrival home of the boats in the morning; the servicing and cleaning; the arrival of the new customers and the last "trial run" of the evening.

I will bring it back to Norfolk next week. It is already on video cassette and if you can put it onto DVD, I am sure people will like it.