Boats Return To North Walsham and Dilham.

"Never thought I would ever see that again." stated a visitor to the North Walsham and Dilham canal open day as he watched a little sailing dinghy tack in front of Ebridge mill.   

The event was organised by the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust on Sunday July 27th and 28th 2013.  Giving an insight into the possibilities this priceless slice of Norfolk heritage has to offer.

The little wooden sailing dinghy reminiscent of the "Swallows and Amazons" era, created a view of a peaceful bygone age, caught in the ripples of the mill pool.

"Swallows and Amazons"

Just before mid-day the "Hoi Larntan" arrived and was launched from the canal bank.  "Hoi Larntan" is a skiff,  built in Thurning near Wood Dalling.

"Hoi Larntan"

She was launched at Blakeney in May this year in time for the Skiff World Championships in Ullapool.  The Coastal Rowing Association brought the skiff for a training session in the still waters of of the canal at Ebridge.

Skiff and Dinghy at Ebridge

"Hoi Larntan" is Norfolk dialect to describe a really good boat or skipper - it was also used as a derogatory term for someone who was too big for their boots.  

Both these boats can be seen sailing at Ebridge from the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbcmT0nzPE

Visit the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust new site  http://nwdct.org/index.html

Learn more about the "Hoi Larntan"    http://crablakeney.wordpress.com/

Broads Under Threat

A great deal of time and money has been allocated to protecting the Broads and Broadland from flooding. One hundred and forty million pounds over twenty years to be precise. This is the Broadland flood Alleviation Project which has just reached its midway point.   Mile after mile of new dykes and banks now follow the course of the waterways - their presence may not please everyone but in the event of excessively heavy rainfall or tidal surges villages and waterside properties now have added protection.

Recently we had the cameras out at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast - we went to see the properties about to be demolished in Beach road.   The erosion of the cliffs along this stretch of the coast has been going on for hundreds of years and the "Powers that be" plan to allow it to continue for at least the next one hundred.

What, you may ask, has this got to do with the Broads?
The flood protection plans currently being carried out in Broadland involve a large number of agencies, but none of them are responsible for Shoreline Management.

Property On The Edge

There is a Shoreline Management Plan and when it is boiled down it amounts to an orderly retreat from the sea.  As far  as the elements are concerned we are not going to fight them on the beaches.    The architects of the plan have forecast  the degree of cliff erosion  up to 2025, 2055, and 2105.  Nobody can be sure if the experts have got their forecasts right, we just have to trust in "The Great God Computer" and hope they have.   The slipway for the Happisburgh lifeboat slipped away sometime ago and the Lifeboat station itself has been demolished.   The lifeboat station was not due to fall into the sea for another twelve years.   Similarly, the catwalk leading to the beach stairway has been removed from the crumbling cliff, seemingly in the nick of time, its demise also appears to have crept well ahead of schedule.

 Old  Slipway

Remains Of The Beach Stairway

Talking to local people only provides anecdotal evidence but it does graphically illustrate what is happening to parts of the Norfolk coastline. Like the fellow who told me he remembered having tea in his friends garden when he was he was a teenager - he is now well into his sixties and the garden now lies more than a  hundred yards out to sea.

Timber Sea Defences

The Road To Nowhere.

The timber sea defences at Happisburgh were constructed in 1959 between Ostend and Cart Gap.  By 1989 the sea had rendered sections of them in-effective and since then the erosion of the cliffs at Happisburgh have accelerated at an alarming rate.    Local government has been fighting a losing battle to maintain the depleted sea defences with limited resources  and without any financial help from Central Government.
Local government agencies simply cannot raise the funds required to finance a civil engineering project of this magnitude, while Central government feel it is economically unsound to spend large sums of tax payers money to protect a few clifftop properties in a remote Norfolk village.   The rate of erosion is being monitored  in case the heart of the village becomes threatened.  When that time comes it may well be too late.

In the 1990's there was a feasibility study carried out to stabilise the cliffs and funds could have been made available for the scheme.  Unfortunately the various agencies procrastinated for such a long time that the window of opportunity to launch the scheme was lost along with more large areas of Happisburgh cliff.  The lack of decisive action for whatever reason means we no longer have a defence against the sea on this vulnerable stretch of coast.

Unstable Cliffs

Now for the scary part.  The moorings at Stalham are only five short miles from those disappearing cliffs at Happisburgh.  The landscape between the cliffs at Happisburgh and Stalham is flat rolling farmland.    Unless something is done, it is not a case of if the sea breaks through, but when.   In this event there will be absolutely nothing to stop the sea reaching the Broads.

It will not be in my lifetime but unless some action is taken it could happen in less than a hundred years.  To someone in their twenties that must seem an inconceivable time scale, although in reality it is barely a lifetime away.   This subject has been aired in many forums over a number of years.  To some enlightened individuals it is dismissed as scare-mongering. To other, equally, well informed people it is just a theory and it may never happen.   The view of this old "Norfolk boy" is somewhere between these two extremes.   Rising sea levels and increased rainfall in the 14th century were responsible for flooding the peat excavations and creating the Broads - what bitter irony it would be if it is the sea that destroys them.  

Bless This House.

 

Author's note.
There is no political agenda attached to the above article.  I only observe what heritage is preserved and that which is at risk.   "There is nothing more powerful than the power of nature".

Check out our new "Big Sky" website    http://bigskyuk.weebly.com/index.html

To see a clip of the demolition at Happisburgh click here

The Norfolk Canals

As the county throws off its winter overcoat  the  rivers and woodlands already show signs of activity.
With this renewed activity comes a host of distractions.
Distractions are cuddly little creatures that amble innocently toward you like lost puppies and before you know it they are demanding a great deal of care and attention and in my case a large slice of filming-time. 

My main objective this year is to complete the film I started more than two years ago - if only I can resist those dreaded distractions that seem to be all around me.

The Bure at Oxnead

The two main distractions over the last twelve months have been the Aylsham Navigation and the North Walsham and Dilham canal.     I have spent a lot of time on both these projects and enjoyed every minute of it,  meeting many interesting and dedicated people in the process.

The Bure Navigation Conservation Trust is commemorating the great flood of 1912 this year.    I agreed to produce a film for them, I enjoyed myself so much I ended up making two.  The double DVD set was finished two weeks ago and profits from the sale of the DVDs  will raise funds for the Trust's conservation work.  The ultimate plan is to make the entire nine and a half miles of this beautiful stretch of canalised river accessible to the public.   All the parishes and villages along the upper Bure have worked together to make this possible.  It is extremely unlikely the Aylsham navigation will ever be accessible to larger craft but it is ideal for canoes and walkers.
The upper Bure is probably one of Norfolk's best kept secrets
The DVD's are on sale through the trust's website (£7.99.)  For more information on this project and the history of the navigation visit their website via the link.
http://aylsham-navigation.norfolkparishes.gov.uk/

Burgh Mill on the Aylsham Navigation.

The North Walsham and Dilham canal is a very ambitious project, the aim is to restore the canal to a navigable waterway.   It is a truly wonderful concept - the ultimate goal is to see boats using the canal once again after an absence of decades.   "Ella" was the last wherry to use the canal in 1934, after that the waterway became unloved and neglected for many years.

How things have changed.  Work parties of volunteers turn out at weekends in all weathers, wading knee deep in muddy mill pools, hacking through brambles and cleaning dykes and ditches.    Over the last twelve months progress on the canal has been absolutely astounding.  The work has progressed steadily and carefully with consideration for wildlife habitat and visual enhancement to the landscape.
For more information and news visit the EAWA website
 http://eawa.co.uk/walsham.html     - and look under work parties.

The Lock at Briggate Mill

You might like to see an  Egret making the most of a renovated section of the canal.
 http://youtu.be/3rrANidG0hQ         or click the  "My You Tube Link" on the right.

Mills

A common sight for travellers in Norfolk and Suffolk are the old drainage mills.  Travel by road, rail or river and there is usually one of these relics somewhere on the horizon.   The location of the mills out on the windswept marshes are yet another reminder of East Anglia’s forgotten past. 

In the mid 1800s there were 240 drainage mills working in Norfolk, today about 70 remain.  The majority of them have fallen into disrepair and are now unloved and unwanted. 

Beside the river Yare, (or the Norwich river as it was called by the old wherrymen), stands Hardley mill.

The mill was built in 1874 for Sir Thomas Proctor Beauchamp of Langley Hall.   The mill was in operation until the 1950's when it was "tail winded" and extensively damaged.    The Internal Drainage Board abandoned Hardley mill and replaced it with an electric drainage pump.  Hardley mill became another unwanted,  redundant wind pump.   

We took the cameras there last Autumn to shoot some film - as we approached the mill we could see the sails rotating majestically in a fairly light breeze.  There is something very "Norfolk" about a windmill.  A sentinel working in splendid isolation out on the marsh.   A symbol of reliability that belongs to another age,  not polluting earth or atmosphere, a machine in perfect harmony with nature.  

Without the drainage mills thousands of acres of valuable grazing land would have been permanently under water.  Low lying Marshland pastures were drained by a network of dykes which carried the water  to the mills which returned the water to the river.  

Early drainage mills pumped the water by scoop wheel until these were replaced by turbines.  The turbines could lift around twelve tons of water per minute.

Hardley mill has undergone an incredible transformation  -  The ultimate plan is to restore Hardley mill to full working order when it will once again pump water.   We were invited to take our cameras to the very top of the mill and sample the wonderful view.  The climb was a challenge even with just the minimum of equipment.   The lower floors were relatively easy, but where the tower narrowed on the third and fourth floors it became more of a squeeze.  Finally we emerged on the platform of the mill cap by way of an iron ladder which rotates as the cap turns with the wind.   The view was spectacular from every quarter - the marsh rolling out beneath us with the Yare, a glittering silver ribbon, winding through it.  

The giant sails rotating ponderously through their arc, their creaking timbers bringing the mill to life as the power resonated throughout the tower. 

Although the the drainage mills were primarily used to drain marshland they did have other uses.   Wherry skippers found the mills useful to hide contraband making it's way along the rivers.  There was more profit in a single cask of French Brandy than forty tons of coal.   Mill men would warn the wherries if the Excise men were in the area by stopping the sails in the cross of St George or the cross of St Andrew.  One signalled danger and one signalled all clear.  The message could be passed across the flat Norfolk landscape faster than any horse and rider. 

A short video can be viewed on the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovE7zWvumbs
or click on "My favourite links" on the right of the blog.
Thanks for looking
Jonno

"Hathor" Forget Me Not.

Yesterday I called in to see an old friend, she is one hundred and six years old.      I last saw her two years ago when I shot some film of  her on the Norfolk broads, she was very sprightly for her age and fun to be with.   When I called at the home she shares with two other Edwardian ladies I was shocked to she how she had deteriorated.  Her decking was cracked, her varnish had peeled and she looked very, very sad.   I am writing about  the pleasure wherry "Hathor".

Two years ago I spent the summer shooting a documentary of  "Hathor's" farewell tour across the Norfolk rivers and broads.  During that summer as I followed "Hathor"  I became more and more attached to her.  The sleek graceful lines seemed out of place for what was originally a robust cargo design.

"Hathor" is a silent witness of a time when local craftsmen created things of lasting quality for very little reward.  She is also a reminder of the enormous social divide that existed in England during the Edwardian period.  A time when the affluent, unashamedly, enjoyed their wealth and the rivers and broads became their exclusive playground.  For the working classes who served them it was an existence, measured by long days of  hard work and very few pleasures.

"Hathor" is a very special craft with a fascinating history.  She was built by Daniel Hall of Reedham in 1905 for Ethel and Helen Colman daughters of Jeremiah Colman (Colmans Mustard).  In 1897 the Colman family travelled the Nile on an Egyptian river boat named "Hathor",  during the trip Alan Colman became gravely ill and died in Luxor.   Seven years later the Colman pleasure wherry was named "Hathor" in Alan's memory.  The interior is inlaid with Teak and Sycamore creating an Egyptian theme throughout the saloon and cabins. 

It is now two years since "Hathor" sailed  the rivers and broads and she is likely to be absent for the foreseeable future.  A friend in need is a friend indeed and "Hathor" is in urgent need of  friends.  Considerable funds are needed to restore her to sailing condition.   Please visit the WYCCT website to learn more about this wonderful old wherry and,  if you so desire, sign up as a friend.

"Forget me not" 

Hathor.

  http://www.wherryyachtcharter.org/
     or you can use the "My Favourite Links"  on the right.

I have included some clips from "Hathor's" farewell tour which can be seen on Youtube.
     click on the Youtube link in "My favourite Links" on the right.

Breydon

Sunday 24th July  2011.

The first time I saw Breydon water was many years ago as a child, it was an August bank holiday.  Mum and dad, armed with a shopping bag full of sandwiches and orange juice, took us kids to Great Yarmouth for the day.    The train steamed along the edge of Breydon water where wading birds foraged in the mud  and the green grey water ebbed out through the channel.  I looked out of the carriage window completely captivated by this mysterious stretch of water and vowed I would cross it one day.

More years than I care to remember have flown by since I made that promise to myself.  It is more than likely I would not have made the trip this summer had it not been for the fact that the wherry "Maud" was scheduled to cross Breydon,  it was a film opportunity too good to miss.

First priority was to find a boat and skipper.  I posted on the Norfolk Broads forum to see if anyone could help, within an hour I had three offers.   I accepted Lord Paul of Sealand's kind offer and for the following two weeks watched the long range forecasts for Great Yarmouth with more hope than expectation.

The day of the shoot arrived and I met up with Lord Paul and "Mistral" moored at the Fisherman's Inn, Burgh Castle.   We chatted over a cup of coffee while we waited for low tide and a call from the "Maud".  The call duly arrived and we set off  for the New Haven Bridge.   It took an hour to cross Breydon and fulfill at least one childhood ambition.

                                                   It was a perfect day for yachtsmen.

It was a perfect day for yachtsmen. a North Westerly was cutting across Breydon at 34 kph raising white caps and buffeting "Mistral" who rode serenely through water.
As we approached the New Haven Bridge we could see "Maud"s great black sail away in the distance, everything was falling into place.  We arrived at the bridge and waited for "Maud" to appear, then we got another call.  The wherry could not get under Vauxhall bridge, so they would have to wait for low water and try again the following day.  

Lord Paul turned "Mistral" about and headed back to Burgh Castle,  We were both disappointed to say the least.  To make it worse as we returned across Breydon the sun broke through and the wind moderated - perfect conditions for filming.  Even though I had failed to get the shots I came for I enjoyed my day out with Paul on "Mistral"

                                                         Perfect conditions for filming.

Plan B was quickly put together.  Lord Paul and "Mistral" were leaving Breydon on the morning tide so my only option was to shoot the wherry from the Breydon wall this was assuming they could get under Vauxhall bridge.

Next day  (Monday 25th  July) A North Westerly gusting to about 30 mph - very dull with fine drizzle at times.
Conditions for filming absolutely atrocious.
I parked at Church Farm, Burgh Castle, loaded my trolley with equipment and set off for the Breydon wall.
After a hike of about a mile and a half I found a spot which gave a good view in both directions, I set the camera up got out my folding chair and waited - and waited - and waited.    Then the call from "Maud" - they were still waiting at the Vauxhall bridge.   The tide was rising - the wind was strengthening - the light was getting dimmer by the minute and my spirits were fading with the light.     I pulled my collar up, turned my back to the wind and waited alone on the Breydon wall - for two hours - in a gale - I must be nuts! 
Then another call from "Maud" they were under the bridge and on their way.  A few minutes later I could see her sail in the murky distance.     Very slowly "Maud" approached the headland where I was waiting.  A fine drizzle was blowing straight onto the lens,  the gusting wind rocked the camera making it impossible to take a steady shot on the 20x zoom.  "Maud" was well within range - if only there was a break in the cloud and a gap in the wind, I would have settled for just thirty seconds - but no such luck.   I knew it was going to be difficult to get anything at all in these conditions.

The wind did not relent, the light did not improve - but I did  get a few worthwhile shots.  Good enough to include in the film?  Probably not.    But "Maud" has to make the return trip across Breydon and I shall be waiting. 

                               "Maud" hauled out for maintenance at Burgh Castle.


Many thanks to Lord Paul and the owners and crew of "Maud" for their help and support through a very tough weekend.       For my part it has to go down as an heroic failure.