Broads

Broads, THE NORFOLK, are a series of inland lakes usually said to be formed by the widening or 'broadening' out of the rivers. More probably their origin is due to a change in the general level of the land surface of the county; for even within historic times the river Yare was an estuary of the sea, in which herrings were caught at the time of Domesday. The broads par excellence are those up the Bure or North River (which empties itself into the sea at Yarmouth), and its tributaries the Ant and the Thume. On the Bure leaving the comparatively hilly land north of Wroxham, it enters a flat marshy country very little above high-water mark, and right and left of it are the well-known broads of Wroxham, Sallhouse, Hoveton, Horning, and Ranworth, all of which can be seen from the main river, and are approached from it by more or less narrow waterways or cuts. The first (Wroxham) is the largest and deepest, there being sailing-water for large boats all over it; but some of the others are very shallow, and are fast growing up owing to the accumulation of decayed vegetable matter, which is gradually adhering to the banks. There is indeed no doubt that a hundred years ago there was double the area of open water here that there is now, and some broads—e.g. that at Dilham, where not so long ago sailing matches were held—are now simply a reed bush, with hardly any water visible. Up the Ant there is the fine broad at Barton and another at Sutton; but the latter is fast closing up, and is covered with water-lilies, and both these are inaccessible to large yachts, owing to the smallness of the bridge at Ludham stopping the way. Up the Thurne there is a very large broad at Hickling, and two others at Martham and Horsey, and these are all of note in the east part of the county, on which it is possible to sail; for the three fine broads of Ormesby, Rollesby, and Filby, though connected and forming a chain, have no practicable outlet to the river. The Yare or Norwich River has no broads on which sailing is possible, but the visitor at Norwich will find those at Surlingham, Strumpshaw, and Rockland well worthy a visit, and very accessible by rail. Near Lowestoft, on the Waveney, is Oulton Broad, but this is near the town, and possesses few of the charms of the other sheets of water named. The broads have grown greatly in favour with holiday-makers of late—for where twenty years ago it was possible to sail from end to end of the Bure without meeting more than two or three yachts, it would now be hard any fine Saturday, during August and September, to find a mooring-place by Wroxham Bridge, where perhaps a hundred yachts may be seen at once, the place resembling Henley at a regatta time. The great influx of visitors has of course sent up the prices of everything, and has destroyed the extreme quiet which was the great charm of the place to naturalists and fishermen. Still the strange scenery—the great expanse of the landscape, and the rank profusion of vegetation and flowers of all sorts, the lofty reed bushes especially attracting attention—will always render the spot a pleasant one, and the keen air being especially beneficial to invalids, it will always be recommended by doctors. Game and fish abound, but it must be clearly understood are as jealously preserved here as anywhere else, and though plover, moorhen, and an occasional duck and heron, can be shot from the deck of a yacht, the sportsman is liable to heavy fines if he lands on the bank to pick up what he has shot. Still the occasional visitor is not generally interfered with if he leaves the game alone. Fish, and especially pike, perch, bream, and rudd, are very plentiful still; but there are only the rivers and one or two broads free to all, though permission is generally easily obtained. For the coarse fish it is absolutely necessary to ground-bait liberally in order to bring the fish to the spot. To the antiquary the district is full of interest, the ruins of St Benet's Abbey, of Burgh Castle (Roman), and many interesting churches, being within easy reach. See G. A. Davies' Norfolk Broads (1884), Walter Rye's Month on the Norfolk Broads (1887), and Emerson and Goodall's Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1887).