The Broads was once Britain's best kept secret. Over 100 years
ago this wild wetland was a place for work and play, providing food, fuel,
shelter and a transport route for people who lived here. The waterways
themselves were a natural playground for messing about in boats.
The East Anglian upper-class had coveted the Broads as a good place for holiday
boating for some time. But it was through the works of one or two writers that
the Broads was 'discovered' by the wider public as a holiday destination in the
late 1800s.
In 1878 Woodtron-born John Loynes started hiring his own boat
to his friends - and the hire boat industry was born. Seeing the potential for
holiday boating he built a selection of cruising boats, especially suited to the
Broads, and in 1880 set up a boat yard at Wroxham Bridge, now home to Broad
Tours. Loynes charged £1.10s to £2.5s a week for a boat without an attendant,
or three to four guineas with attendance.
In 1882 he took the one and only advert in G C Davies' book
The Handbook to the Rivers and Broads of Norfolk and Suffolk, which ran to fifty
editions over the next forty years.
Within ten years no fewer then thirty seven boat builders and
owners featured in the handbook. One of these was Robert Collins who, in 1886,
founded the boat building business at Wroxham that was to grow under his son
Ernest's name. The Collins family not only built up one of the earliest and
biggest hire fleets on the Broads but also took a leading role in the
development of yachts suitable for the Norfolk rivers. The advent of the
railways had a significant impact on the commercial life of the Broads. They
played a large part in boosting the holiday industry and in 1893 the Great
Eastern Railway published Summer Holidays in the Land of the Broads, which not
only promoted cheap circular trips by rail and steamer but also contained a list
of forty or more owners with boats for hire.
But the railways also heralded the end of the commercial life
of the cargo carrying wherries, the huge black sailed trading barges which had
plied the rivers in their hundreds for centuries.
However, enterprising wherry owners seized the opportunity of
converting their wherries into holiday accommodation for the summer months,
while at the end of the season they reverted to trading. The holds were scrubbed
clean and partitions inserted to form two cabins, and a lavatory was fitted. A
piano could be provided for an extra 15s a week.
Gradually, as holiday-makers demanded higher standards, many
of the wherry conversions became permanent. By the late 1880's luxurious
pleasure wherries were being purpose built with in some cases, a bath and a
piano; and a skipper and mate would cater for the visitors' every need. By
1900 there were well over 100 pleasure wherries available for hire. Of these,
two still sail the broads - Solace, built in 1903 and Hathor, built in 1905 for
the Colman sisters of mustard fame.
Later, the elegant wherry yacht was designed, combining a
traditional wherry rig with a yacht-shaped hull and counter stern so guests
could sit without interfering with the sailing of the vessel. Of these Olive and
Norada, built in 1909 and 1912 respectively, are still available for hire, along
with pleasure wherry Hathor, under the ownership of Wherry Yacht Charter at
Wroxham. The White Moth, built in 1915, was recently restored and is today owned
by the Norfolk Broads Yachting Company.
The Broads boat hire industry took another stride forward when Harry Blake and
five friends from a London tennis club spent a holiday on the Broads in 1906 in
one of Ernest Collins' wherry yachts. At the end of the holiday Blake offered to
act as Collins' agent in the hope of extending the six-week season. In
1907, in his first year as agent, Blake wrote most of his bookings in a tiny
pocket diary. The following year he risked 4s 6d (23p) on a three line
advertisement in the Daily Mail. It brought in 400 replies and Blake's Agency,
based in London was born.
The first catalogue appeared in 1908 Catalogue of Yachts and
Wherries for Hire listed 43 sailing yachts from over a dozen boat yards.
In 1916 Harry Blake founded the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads
Yacht Owner' Association to represent the twenty boat owners for whom the agency
was acting. In the fifteen page introduction to his 1916 Yachting List Blake
enthuses 'a week's holiday on these waters is worth a month elsewhere'.
He recommends taking a gramophone on the holiday 'for nowhere
can one of these machines be heard to greater advantage than on board. It is
simply delightful to sit on deck in the twilight listening to a favourite song
with no discordant sound; the stillness of the evening being only broken at
times by the rustle of the reeds and the splash of rising fish. Only let it be a
good one, such as the Pathephone, for other craft may be
moored close by.'
Blake goes on to extol the virtues of the Broads, saying 'The
greatest charm a holiday spent in this manner holds for one is its perfect
freedom and peacefulness, its absolute change and unconventionality: indeed the
feeling of independence is paramount, and so long as one respects the few
recognised laws of the district there is little you cannot do.'
In 1945 Harry Blake retired at the age of 65 and the agency
was sold to the boat owners who were anxious to gain more control over their
lettings. The office moved from London to Wroxham in 1964.
After the war W B Hoseason set up the rival Broadland Owners
Association at Oulton Broad which helped further expand the holiday boating
industry.
In the 1930s Roys, who were later to call themselves 'The
Largest Village Store in the World', had jumped on the holiday bandwagon by
offering to send customers a 'List of Goods' suitable for the trip, and deliver,
free, everything for yachting parties, from groceries to bathing costumes, to
any of the boat hire centres. 'We take back any Non-Perishable goods left over
at the end of a cruise and allow in full,' they advertised.
By the 1970s Broads holidays had peaked to the point where
action had to be taken to avoid congestion on the change-over day, and several
yards advertised holidays starting on Thursdays only. The six week season had
been extended to six months, with some boat yards prepared to hire craft outside
the season.
Since the 1980s the Broads boating industry has entered a new
phase, facing competition from package holidays abroad. But other new types of
holiday are on offer, with more short breaks, and with the restoration of
clearer water, wildlife and plant life, the Broads offers an exciting
opportunity to escape the rat race and take a timeless boating holiday in a
unique wetland.
Author - Hilary Franzen