Gone fishing: Great Yarmouth's boom years

TAKE a closer look at this picture from Great Yarmouth Port Authority which I came across on the Our Great Yarmouth website. Look carefully and you can spot at least 100 fishing smacks moored on either side of the Yare - they're five a side on the Gorleston bank. When was it taken? I'm guessing the 1940s; clearly well before the herring industry came to such a spectacular end in the 1950s and 1960s.

Wherryman's Way: The highlights package

I DID the Wherryman's Way the old-fashioned way at the weekend ..from the North Sea by boat.
This sort of stuff is all new to me, so simple things like being at the mercy of tide and (bridge opening) times were all very much a novelty. We had planned to leave Southwold at 9am ...only to realise that we were stuck on the putty at our moorings. Afloat at 10.30 ,we punched the tide up to Yarmouth arriving at Hall Quay by 3pm. Yarmouth looks different from the river. It is a vast industrial estate: huge ships, mountainous car scrapyards, tall boatsheds.
The skipper had booked the bridge openings (Haven and then Breydon) for 4.15pm so the sun was already quite low by the time we headed across Breydon Water (pictured) . Of course the pace is different too. Yarmouth to Reedham is the best part of a day by foot. So on board the good yacht Limon it was like watching a TV highlights package; Berney Arms, Polkeys Mill, the New Cut, Reedham, Cantley, all came and went very quickly. We were blessed with a beautiful sunset and photography somehow seemed easy. Then moored in front of Hardley Mill I spotted the wherry Maud. A wherry, a windmill and a sunset - the perfect shot surely! At which point my camera ran out of power. We'll make that time, tide, bridges and batteries shall we?

Wistful reminders carved in wood

BARELY had I sent off the final alterations to the publishers when someone says: "You have included all the benches haven't you." Err, no I haven't actually.
Let me explain. Along with lots of signposts and information boards the Wherryman's Way also comes with a range of wistful benches. Or rather benches inscribed with wistful phrases, helping you to imagine yourself back to the wherry's heyday. They are good, but I thought it would be a bit trainspottery to faithfully record and photograph every one. After all you've got to leave something for people to discover. But for what it's worth, here's my favourite. "Distant echoes A bustling wherry port" at Great Yarmouth helps you forget you're actually standing next to Asda.

All aboard for the Maritime Festival

I'VE BLOGGED before about the sense of anti-climax at the end of the Wherryman's Way in Great Yarmouth. Thirty-five miles of wherry'n'wonder end in an ASDA car park. It just doesn't hit the spot, although the new monument unveiled earlier this year is a welcome step in the right direction. After all that walking and all that history, you feel you deserve a Yarmouth bedecked in bunting, boats moored from stem to stern along the river and the raucous shout of sea shanties in the air. Amazingly all this is possible ...but only if you time your arrival for the annual Great Yarmouth Maritime Festival. It was my first time this weekend and I was very impressed. It's the nearest my generation will ever get to seeing how South Quay used to look. The place was heaving. I enjoyed the boats and the books and the people; my kids soaked up the freebies in the RSPB and Natural England tents. Not sure about some of those shanties, mind.

Back to the future for Yarmouth's third crossing?

HOW should people in Great Yarmouth cross the River Yare? We seem to keep changing our minds. Back in April I was talking to regulars at Ye Olde Ferry Boat about the ferry (seen here in the 1950s, pic: Jack Harrison) which used to run between Gorleston and South Denes Road. It came to an end in 1997 because the local council said it could not justify an annual subsidy of - if memory serves - £30,000 a year. Now that same council is preparing to spend either £80 million on a bridge or £180 million on a tunnel, just upriver from where the ferry used to ply its trade. So here's a radical idea to save a few quid. Ditch the bridge, ditch the tunnel and subsidise a modern ferry. Allow bikes on board, cut down on traffic, encourage people to walk, talk about carbon footprints ....all that sort of stuff. And be true to Yarmouth's history in the process.
* Read the full story and see a video demo of the proposed "third crossing" here.

The Southern Belle - Queen of Breydon Water

LET me introduce you to the "star" of Chapter 13. He's Steve "Tug" Wilson, the skipper of the Southern Belle.
For the last three years Steve's converted steam boat has been running river trips from Great Yarmouth. I've often seen her distinctive red and yellow livery as I've walked the Wherryman's Way, but today was the first time that I've stepped aboard.

The Southern Belle is a grand old lady approaching her 85th birthday, but after a painstaking restoration by Steve and his son Colin, she looks in very good nick. Steve took us on her regular Sunday outing; across Breydon and then up short chunks of the Waveney and then the Yare.

In the process I saw this beautiful tidal estuary in an entirely new light. Wrecks of wherries loom out of the spray; traditional sailing cruisers heel dramatically in front of you. Steve's mate George stands on the prow pointing furiously as yet another tripper forgets the rules of the river and then lurches to starboard. For more photos go to flickr.

On board it was good to see local passengers; people who had lived in the area all their life but had never quite got around to seeing Breydon properly before. Steve reckons they account for at least 50 per cent of his trade.

You can get black and white photos from the 1920s and 1930s which show boats like The Pride of the Yare and Doris laden with passengers out for a jolly. It's fair to say that Steve doesn't quite pack them in like that yet. But if there's any justice in this world he should be. Go on, give it a go.

* The Breydon Water Explorer runs every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday at 1145. For more details of other trips call Steve Wilson on 07906 020225.

Yarmouth's forgotten ferries

ONE of the great things about writing a book is that you have got an excuse to go up to complete strangers and get talking.

Which is why I found myself deep in conversation at the bar of Ye Olde Ferry Boat in Gorleston the other week. I wanted to know about just that - ye olde ferry boats across the River Yare. Amazingly virtually nothing is written about the ferries in the Yarmouth history books - I guess they were taken for granted.

There used to be two. The Upper Ferry ran from Southtown to South Quay and stopped in 1954. The Lower Ferry ran from Ye Olde... to South Denes Road. Amazingly this one survived till as late as 1997. Armed with lots of good new information from the landlord and his regulars I found this great picture on the internet dating back to 1954 - the year the ferrymen swapped oars for a motor. The photographer Jack Harrison has very kindly allowed me to use it in my book.
If anyone has any memories of either ferry do let me know. Post a reply before May 31st and you might even sneak into the book too....

*See more of Jack Harrison's photos here

Great Yarmouth: a proper finale

THERE was always an annoying sense of anti-climax about finishing the Wherryman's Way in Great Yarmouth.
After 35 miles of beauty and isolation, somehow an ASDA car park wasn't quite the finale we felt we deserved.
So three cheers for a new monument which has been unveiled on the banks of the Yare between the supermarket and the railway station.
A billowing black sail with the wherry's distinctive high peak is embedded within stone and brick.
Benches with inscriptions - a feature throughout the walk - are also to be found on either side.
I fear that vandals and grafitti will not be far behind, but this afternoon everything looked suitably pristine. At long last there is a finishing line, an end point and yes somewhere to have your picture taken.