The Gentle Deception Of The Norfolk And Suffolk Broads Visitors to the 120 mile network of placid, reed fringed lakes and slow flowing rivers that make up the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, could be forgiven for thinking this is a timeless landscape, unchanged for an eternity. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Arthur Ransome And The Norfolk Broads Many visitors are drawn to the Norfolk Broads every year because of the five children's books, written in the 1930s and 1940s by Arthur Ransome.

 

	The Wherry - Workhorse Of The Norfolk Broads If ever you need proof that progress does not always mean improvement, you only need to think of the graceful, gaff rigged wherries that were the forerunner of today's motorway truck.

Have you ever wanted to be an engine driver? It used to be the dream of every small boy to be an engine driver. Nowadays, despite the alternative career attractions of test pilots and astronauts, the interest in steam railways is stronger than ever and practically every weekend in some part of the country, steam railway enthusiasts set off happily for a day trip in a train pulled by a steam locomotive. But did you know the Norfolk Broads has its very own steam railway line?

	Ranworth Broad Nature Reserve One of the jewels of the Broads National Park is the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's nature reserve at Ranworth Broad. Located just along the River Bure from the popular yachting village of Horning, it is part of the wonderful Bure Marshes National Nature Reserve.

The Norfolk Broads Wind Pumps Travelling around the broads, with the largely flat landscape, vast skies and many windmills, you could easily imagine you were in Holland. In fact, you would be wrong on two counts.

 

	Norfolk Broads Smugglers Whenever taxes are imposed - particularly when these taxes are perceived as unfair - people will seek to avoid them. Smuggling had its genesis in the taxes (actually, customs duty) imposed on the export of wool in 1300. Norfolk, being at the time a great producer of wool, was one of the first areas of the country to rebel against this imposition.

The Mississippi Meets The River Bure The last thing a visitor to the Norfolk Broads would expect to see is a Mississippi river boat. Yet stroll past the Swan Inn, at Horning, on the River Bure, and that's precisely what you'll see.

	Boating On The Norfolk And Suffolk Broads Probably the most perfect way to travel the broads is on one of the luxury wherries you can hire for your party. This is a tradition going back to Victorian times, when the broads were beginning to be used for the new leisure pursuit of boating.

The History Of Boating On The Norfolk Broads Boating on the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads has been a pleasureable activity for about three hundred years, although it is only in the middle of the 19th centrury it was opened up to visitors.