The Boats Of North Norfolk

I've just returned from a few days break on the Norfolk coast and as usual I seem to have taken a lot of pictures of boats. So here are just a few....

This stretch of coast used to be lined with commercial harbours with ships sailing around the British coast and across the North Sea to the rest of Europe. In those days East Anglia was the industrial heartland of the country, particularly because of the wool trade. However as ships got larger, inlets and harbours silted up, and the wool trade failed, so the ports of Norfolk, like Wells-Next-The-Sea (above), became fishing towns and villages.

Gradually the fishing trade failed also and nowadays, although the remnants of the fishing fleet still operates, many former fishermen find employment in tourism, like the ones above taking visitors over to Blakeney Point from Morston Quay to see the seals (more of that in a future post).

On the way they may see Juno, a reconstruction of a sailing barge. This traditional type of vessel is capable of sailing into the shallow creeks along this coast and also putting to sea. Their secret is that, instead of the more normal keel which most vessels have, the Juno is fitted with lee-boards, one on each side, which can be lowered to stabilise her in deep water, or raised to give a draft of just 2ft 6 inches (76 cms).

Or they may see one of these little sailing boats used by youngsters learning to sail in these relatively calm waters protected from the open sea by the shingle bank of Blakeney Point.

Or perhaps even Mary, who started out in life as an open lifeboat propelled by oars before being de-commissioned and remodelled with the charming addition of a garden shed! If this picture reminds you of something from childhood then it's probably Noah's Ark from those little illustrated books of Bible stories.

Looking across this wide area at high tide it's difficult to believe that in just six hours or so all the water will have departed leaving these vessels high and dry till the next tide.

Here's the scene at low tide at Freshes Creek near Stiffkey. Students of the idiosyncrasies of English place-name pronunciation will be thrilled to learn that Stiffkey is pronounced locally as Stew-key !

The boat above is going nowhere till the tide comes in.

If you can't wait for the tide to come in, or if you can't afford the £1,500 it will cost you to charter the Juno for the day, you could try one of the colourful kayaks stored near Wells harbour.

"O' course if you int got no boat at all you can always go on your boik!"

Take care.