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.
The catalyst for this was the coming of the railways and improvements to the roads in the mid 19th Century. This had the effect of making the magnificent wherries, that had been the main mode of transport on the broads for centuries redundant.
However - as is so often the case with a sea change of this nature - it created new opportunities. This came in the form of the new breed of tourist being brought in increasing numbers by the new railway. The relatively swift, safe travel offered by the railways had already opened up the concept of the "seaside holiday" first started in the Regency period. Now the more sophisticated tourists were eager to explore the mysterious inland idyll of lakes and rivers in remote Norfolk.
Boating as a recreation was not a new idea on the broads and many of the broads villages had been holding races and annual regattas for many years. What was new was the idea of visitors also taking to the water, because they needed boats to be provided. Thus the idea of converting their redundant wherries to carry passengers quickly spread like wildfire among the wherry owners.
These converted wherries were, by their very nature, fairly rudimentary, with hammocks slung across the hastily swept out cargo holds. So it wasn't long before the boat builders in the area realised they could continue to build wherries, provided they were designed for this emerging market. So the concept of the pleasure wherry was born.
These were built from the keel up to be the last word in luxury. Some of the most magnificent, such as the Hathor, were built for private owners, and - like the holiday homes of today - some owners were not adverse to hiring them out to tourists when they did not wish to go sailing themselves.
These spacious vessels were capable of taking a party of ten or a dozen people in comfort and they would come complete with skipper and steward to attend the passenger's every need.
In addition to the large party on the wherry, the more intrepid amongst the visitors wanted to take to the water on their own small yacht. Of course, not everyone owned a yacht and one of the first people to make a business of hiring yachts was John Loynes, of Norwich, who set up his business in 1878.
This came about because he took two friends around the broads in his dingy. Being keen bird watchers they wanted to keep stopping, whilst Loynes wanted to keep going. Finally one of them asked why he didn't hire them the dingy so they could please themselves where they went. Thus the concept of "boat hire" was born.
Loynes originally operated his business in Norwich, but it soon became clear that a more natural location would be on the River Bure, at Wroxham, yet just seven miles from the main railway station at Norwich. So the fledgling business was relocated. Loyne's success soon attracted other boat hire entrepreneurs to the same area and Wroxham gradually became the boating centre and "capital" of the Broads.
In the next 30 years this trade grew and grew and by the Edwardian period, boating on the Norfolk Broads was firmly established as a recognised activity, with every town in the area offering craft for hire.
Of course, all these boats had to be built and one of the established wherry builders in nearby Horning quickly adapted their boat building skills to building yachts as well as the pleasure wherries that were replacing the workaday wherries. They were also quick to realise the potential of hiring boats as well as building them and so, in 1898, the Norfolk Broads Yachting Company was formed, operating from the Southgate Boat Yard. This remains the oldest
Some of the yachts they built in those early days are still part of their hire fleet. One fine example is Zoe a gaff-rigged counter sterned yacht. This is the oldest craft in the yacht fleet and was built as a hire vessel in 1897. Although this craft is only suitable for experienced sailors, it is their most popular boat.
A gaff-rigged yacht on the River Bure
The same company also hire out the wherry, White Moth, which comes with its own skipper and many modern creature comforts.
All this activity soon created spin-off industries and, in 1907, an accountant, called Harry Blake, was holidaying on the broads and realised that the visitor needed one central source of information about all the disparate boatyards and hire companies that had sprung up all over the broads. So he published his "Catalogue of Yachts, Wherries and Boats For Hire especially for the Rivers and Broads".
In the 1960s the method of creating fiberglass hulls was perfected, freeing the boat building industry from the restrictions of skilled labour, cost and time of building hulls from timber. Consequently, boating on the broads has exploded into the thriving industry it is today, offering every sort of craft from a drive it yourself "day boat" hireable by the hour to the luxury week long holiday on a wherry, such as The White Moth, skippered by an experienced man.
The wherry "White Moth" on Ranworth Broad
Copyright 2006 Norfolk Broads Explorer
Related articles:
The Wherry - Workhorse Of The Broads
Have You Ever Wanted To Be An Engine Driver?