River Yare

Looking closely, you saw that the leaves were covered with small insects, and the small roach were busily plucking them off the underside.

you could hear the little snap or suck the fishes made and once you caught the sound you found the air was full of these snaps and a most weird effect the sound gave the roach crowded eagerly round to eat the crumbs that i threw them so fearless were they that when i put my hand into the water and held it quite still for a while they came and snapped at my fingers and funny little tickling scrapes they gave i actually succeeded in grasping one or two of the boldest a piece of paper which had been crumpled up and thrown on the water was being urged to and fro by the hungry little fish who tried to find it eatable and tugged at it bravely the clouds darkened i went into my cabin as a squall of wind and rain came on the thunder grew louder and louder and there alone with the tempest raging i could yet write that the end of the evening was as pleasant as the beginning so great to me is the charm of the water i slung my hammock hoping that on the following day the sun would shine the wind would blow and the hours would pass as quickly as the boat sailed and slept as sound as man may it has happened that i have written a good deal about these waters too much some people say one result has been that i have been pretty well overpowered with correspondence arising from persons making inquiries about the district with a view to visiting it therefore when the publishers requested me to write a kind of hand-book or guide to the broads and rivers i thought it a good idea in that inquirers might by buying such a book save themselves the trouble of writing to me and getting necessarily short and inadequate replies i am afraid however the guide-book style is rather beyond me and i shall be most at home if i try to convey the requisite information by describing one of the numerous cruises in which i have sailed as guide to those friends who have trusted their holidays into my care and i will select one lasting but a fortnight during which time we covered most of the available ground before doing so a few words descriptive of the situation of these rivers and lakes will not be amiss from yarmouth looking inland three main water highways radiate the chief is the yare flowing from the westward then comes the bure flowing from the north-westward and having her large tributaries the ant and the thern flowing from the northward from the south-west come the clear waters of the waveney all these rivers are navigable for considerable distances and on the bure and its tributaries the greater number of the broads are situate these broads are large shallow lakes connected with the rivers and are many of them navigable flat marshes follow the lines of the rivers and while higher and well wooded ground rises near the upper portions of the rivers near the sea the country is perfectly flat and vessel sailing on all three rivers are visible at the same time the level of the marsh is frequently below that of the rivers and at the outlet of each main drain is a drainage pump or turbine wheel sometimes worked by a windmill and sometimes by steam which pumps the water out of the drains into the rivers the fall of the river is about four inches to the mile the ebb and flow of the tide are felt for thirty miles inland but its rise and fall are very little indeed there are no impediments to navigation of any consequence so it may be imagined what a happy hunting ground this is to the boat-sailor the naturalist and the angler End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Down the Yare, Norwich to Readham do you mean to say said wynne that these broads are worth my giving up a few days to seeing them if you will give up a fortnight i promise you that you will find it too short you went to the friesland mears years ago and enjoyed it you will like these quite as well so he promised to come for a fortnight rather reluctantly and when on his arrival in norwich he took a preliminary canter by rail to yarmouth he refused to say anything about what he thought of the country which looked ominous we had hired a tent uncutter and she was lying at thorpe a mile and a half below the city the man we had engaged rowed the jolly boat up for us and as wynne was enthusiastic about old buildings we rowed him up the river to the new mills a very old mill which spans the river wensum near its entrance into the city from thence we came back along the narrow sinuous river overhung with buildings many of them ancient and picturesque under numerous bridges wharves where wherries were loading or unloading using the half-lowered mast as cranes past the boom tower still keeping watch and ward over the river quaint bishop's bridge paul's ferry where there is a ruined watergate often sketched and photographed pass the railway station into the reach parallel with king street where gables and archways and courts delight the painter here on the left bank is another boom tower built of flint the universal building stone of norfolk faced by another tower on the opposite bank whence runs a fine piece of the old city wall up the hill to another and larger tower in better preservation on the summit then we next passed the very extensive works of messrs j and j coleman and below them innumerable stacks of choice wood out of which the boxes to contain the mustard c are made you speak of this as the winsome said wynne i thought it was the yare this river is the wensum but this smaller stream coming in on the right is the true yare and from this point the united river takes the name of the yare this spot is called trowell's hythe and half a mile up it where there is a mill was once a famous spot for smelts where they were caught by large casting nets used at night by torchlight but the town sewerage has effectually spoiled the smelting the pool below the new mills was also a place where the smelts were caught in large numbers but it is not so good now presently we came to thorpe where a bend of the river has been cut off by two railway bridges and a straight new cut made for the navigation we took the old river and wynne was charmed with the view which then unfolded itself the long curve of the river was lined on the outer bank by picturesque houses with gardens leading to the water's edge while behind them rose a well-wooded bank in the autumn of eighteen seventy nine this reach was found to be swarming with pike and it speedily swarmed with anglers who had generally good sport until apparently all the pike were caught at intervals since there have been similar immigrations of pike to this reach when tides unusually high or salt drive the fish up from the lower reaches at the lower end of the reach is a favourite resort on summer evenings a waterside inn known as thorpe gardens where we pulled up Here there are also boat letting stations where cruising yachts can be hired.

just through the bridge we joined the main river again and noticed several yachts moored against the bank amongst which was ours the author provides the following footnote this bridge was the scene of a most disastrous railway collision in september eighteen seventy four when two trains met and an appalling loss of life resulted twenty five persons being killed and sixty or seventy injured wind stepped on board curious to inspect a norfolk yacht and he freely commented on her enormous counter short keel great open well and tall pole-mast in a short time we stowed all our belongings and set sail mainsail jib and topsail the spread of canvas rather startling wynne who had only been used to sea yachts there was a light northwesterly wind and we glided swiftly away before it but ere we had sailed a couple of hundred yards win insisted on our stopping to sketch the white house at whitlingham which with the trees on the hill the wood-shaded reach of the river and the huge brown sails of the wherries formed a picture we might well wish to carry away wynne often stopped in this way to the intense disgust of our man who liked to make his passages quickly and had no sympathy with artistic amusements The dyke leading out of the river by the White House is a regular harbour for pike, which is continually restocked from the river.

It is private property, but just at the mouth of the dyke in the navigable river is a good spot.

May in Broadland Humble race of men, a like amphibious, by kind nature's hand, formed to exist on water and on land.

From Life of a Fenman, 1771 The River Yare runs its enormous torrent of dull brown waters on a sluggish ebb into the German Ocean.

The streams which focus themselves at Braydon, a huge backwater 2,000 acres in extent, are three.

The Yare, by some still named the Wensum, which trails its sinuous stream through Norwich and Marshland, continuing its course to the sea.

The question that was posed in that second episode, and again in a third episode in June 2024, was how far away is a satisfactory resolution in those parts of the country that have been affected? Well, here we are, listeners, almost eight years on from the Dutch end judgment in the European Court of Justice, and whisper it quietly, a satisfactory resolution to the issue that has resulted in 74 LPAs in and around special protection areas withholding planning permission unless the negative impacts of development can be ruled out completely might soon be close.

You will have spotted, I am sure, that pursuant to provisions contained within the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, Natural England last month published for consultation a draft Norfolk Environmental Delivery Plan, EDP, which is designed to protect and enhance the Norfolk Broads Special Area of Conservation, SAC, taking in the rivers Yare and Bure, apologies for the pronunciation, anybody in that part of the world, the Broadland Ramsar, and the River Wensum SAC, whilst at the same time enabling sustainable development.

EDPs, I know you know, are designed to address the impacts of development on specific sites and species and are a key component of the Nature Restoration Fund, NRF.

So are we nearly there? Has the nutrient neutrality nut finally been cracked? Will it work? These are the questions that you are about to hear discussed by new friends of the podcast, Alastair Wager, Matt Browne, and Phil Courtier, who were expertly steered by old friend of the podcast, Nina Pindham.

That this EDP would cover.

Um, so by the EDP's figures, and they're not-- the figures aren't given in full, but from what you can see from the figures across the three rivers, uh, in the River Bure, you'd be looking at maybe, uh, one point two percent extra of the current phosphorus pollution going in there.

On the Yare and Wensum, the figures are much more, um, opaque, but perhaps around, uh, zero point five percent in each.

Now, that seems like a really small proportion, but in rivers that are already pretty knackered from phosphorus pollution and nitrate pollution as well, um, that could be a tipping point that could lead to disaster.

I have, therefore, simply shown the Broads as they really are, without any endeavour to extol their varied beauties, or to add charms of imagination, when they may be discovered in reality by a brief visit.

It has been my endeavour to take the reader over the principal navigable portions of the Three Rivers, the Bure, the Waveney, and the Yare, and upon all the Broads of any extent or importance, and, en passant, I have glanced at the various objects of importance on each bank.

Pains have been taken to point out the chief ecclesiastical features, as in this respect Norfolk is particularly endowed.

Having aimed solely at producing a plain, unvarnished guide, I trust that my effort may prove successful.

A little practice, however, soon teaches one to flounder about capitally.

Having gained the western extremity, we find the mouths of two rivers right ahead.

That to the right is the Yare, from which Yarmouth derives its name, and leads to Norwich, etc.

That to the left, up which our way lies, is the Waveney.

What hauls they made! What skeps of wild fowl they boated home! What spicy, wildlife, wild adventurous yarns they told! But to-day they are as lost to us as the Stone Age man who slew mammoth and pterodactyl and many a beast of stranger ravening.

There runs an acute angle of ronds and marsh walls at Braden Far End, against the apex of which the tidal water splits its volume, to send half of its inrush up the Yare and the other half up the Waveney.

At this corner, in tiny groups, when I was a young man, nestled several tarry old houseboats, the waterside lodging houses of hardy fisherfolk, who but rarely saw their town or village homes.

Not one did we see to-day, for these poor fishermen have also fallen on evil days.

In Smith's scow, with him and two flintlock fowling pieces, we left Ladyhaven Cut for the Broad of Breydon, passing certain wherrys and keels, the latter laden with oaken timbers for building of the king's ships, corvettes being constructed on local shipyards.

The saltings, or rather ronds, as the natives term them, on the waterward side of the walls, or as the Dutch know them, dykes, appear strangely as if they had been, and no doubt are, slicings from the mainland beyond the walls called marshes.

And these ronds continue, more or less irregular and serpentined of outline due to the abrasion of the waters, on the north side to the Yare, and on the south side to the Waveney at Borough Castle.

Creeks, known locally as drains, finger-like vein these ronds, which do drain the tidal water on the ebb.

End of chapter 4 Chapter 5 of Man and Nature on the Broads by Arthur Henry Patterson This LibriVox recording is in the public domain May in Broadland Humble race of men, a like amphibious, by kind nature's hand, formed to exist on water and on land.

From Life of a Fenman, 1771 The river Yare runs its enormous torrent of dull brown waters on a sluggish ebb into the German Ocean.

The streams which focus themselves at Braydon, a huge backwater 2,000 acres in extent, are three.

The Yare, by some still named the Wensum, which trails its sinuous stream through Norwich and Marshland, continuing its course to the sea.

The Bure, draining north-east Norfolk, and the Waveney, that divides the county from its neighbour Suffolk.

These, with some smaller tributaries, drain some 1,400 square miles of country.

From Life of a Fenman, 1771.

The River Yare runs its enormous torrent of dull brown waters on a sluggish ebb into the German Ocean.

The streams which focus themselves at Braden, a huge backwater 2,000 acres in extent, are three.

The Yare, by some still named the Wensum, which trails its sinuous stream through Norwich and Marshland, continuing its course to the sea.

The Bure, draining northeast Norfolk, and the Waveney, that divides the county from its neighbour Suffolk.

These, with some smaller tributaries, drain some 1,400 square miles of country.