Just back from two weeks sojourn in Norfolk and here is the first picture - a 'boating' pic.The first week Joe and I were based at Sandringham, excellent dog walking, mixed weather and cracking company one afternoon in the form of Greygal from Dogs on Tour.
The second week we moved the caravan along the coast to West Runton ( near Cromer) and Joe, plus the dogs, departed for home whilst I drove south to Bressingham to retrieve my Mother from the clutches of baby brother David. This second week was about giving Mum a break. Last year we went to Kent and this year it was the turn of Norfolk to host the girls away tour - Okay, the OLD girls away tour. 
On our last day we tootled over to Wroxham (Roy's Town for those who know the place) and watched the tupperware boats whilst we enjoyed a beer on the quay. Only a short visit as Wroxham is a bit too commercial for our liking so we headed off to Ranworth Broad. We had just had a delightful lunch in the Inn at Ranworth and wandered across to the quay when we came across Albion, a Norfolk Trading Wherry, moored at the end of the quay.
I struck up a conversation with the chap on board and we were invited aboard for a tour. Twenty tons unladen with the capacity to carry a Forty ton load. Albion was built in 1898 of two inch oak plank with a pitch pine mast and she traded until the second world war. The boatman's cabin is pretty spacious compared to a narrowboat but the design is very much in keeping its contemporaries on the canals. It was a real treat see her and even better to be invited on board this grand old lady.
2 comments:
I sailed Albion for a week in 1973. Lovely boat. Actually, to say sailed is an exaggeration. We did sail quite a bit, but spent as much time quanting (pushing with poles against the river bed), and hauling from the bank. She had no engine then, and if the wind wasn't blowing , you had to resort to man power.
She is also the first boat I ever fell in the water from - in full view of a tour boat :-)
Hi Neil
Albion still has no engine but they do have a small dinghy with an outboard and I believe they use this as opposed to a press ganged crew!
Lovely boat as you say.
NB Caxton
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