On 6 – 7 September, 2025 the East Coast Gaffers are holding an event where the Norfolk Wherry ‘Albion’ will act as a ‘mother ship’ for a gathering of small boats to enjoy sailing from Bureside Campsite on the Broads. This article is reproduced from one written in November 2019 for Gaffers Log, the Newsletter of the OGA.
The Norfolk wherry ‘Albion’ is one of just two survivors of the 300 ‘black sailed traders’ which once sailed the waterways of the Broads. In Edwardian times wherry skippers would scrub out the holds of the boats in summer and take holidaymakers for trips. Henry Gowman is in his final year as a skipper for the Norfolk Wherry Trust, set up 70 years ago by Roy Clark, determined to honour a vow he made whilst fighting on the Normandy beaches in 1944. The Trust selected a wherry named ‘Plane’, built in 1898, and began to restore her, first sailing her again, with her original name ‘Albion’, in 1949.
There I was quietly working out my timings to take the wherry ‘Albion’ down the River Bure, through Great Yarmouth, across the old estuary of Breydon Water and onward up the River Waveney to Oulton Broad, when a stray comment during a phone call alerted me to the news that the wherry ‘Maud’ was also making the Breydon crossing on the same tide. With only a couple of days before the planned crossing there was no time to lose to take maximum advantage of this now rare occasion of trading wherries, in the plural, crossing Breydon in company. A flurry of emails and phone calls resulted in myself and Maud’s skipper, Mike Barnes, together with aerial photographer Mike Page hatching a plan to get two wherries and a plane to Breydon Bridge at 1330 – being slack low water.
In the golden days of wherries, the ebb and flood of the waters around Great Yarmouth would have been the time for dozens of black sailed traders, as they are known, to set off on their journeys heavily laden with cargoes. Back then, as now, a passage through Great Yarmouth and across Breydon Water should not be taken lightly. The times of tides can, of course, be worked out beforehand but only in theory. Other factors to be taken into account are the wind direction and speed, and whether there has been heavy rain inland that has fed into the rivers emptying into Great Yarmouth en-route to the North Sea. The computations are almost endless. Whether the tides are neaps or springs, whether the wind is blowing from the Nor’east or westerly and whether there has been heavy rain in the past few days. Wind from the N or E can push water up and hold back the ebb tide, whilst from the W it can empty the water more quickly, making it easier to ground on the mud banks. Lots of fresh water running down the rivers can carry on being an ‘ebb’, even if the tide underneath is on the flood. It follows that in certain circumstances, slack water is no such thing.
This was to be a poignant trip for me as it was to be the last time I would take ‘Albion’ across Breydon – a halt to my skippering days being called by insurance age restrictions. For the others it was an exciting and slightly daunting learning experience, being the first time they were taking ‘Albion’ through this potentially hazardous stretch of water. Also aboard was Jayne Tracey, daughter of Major James Forsyth, who was one of the rescuers of ‘Albion’ in 1949, when she was a stripped out dumb barge being used by Colmans.
‘Maud’ set off from Acle Bridge and ‘Albion’ from her base at Womack Water near Ludham, keeping in contact by mobile phones. What on earth would the old wherrymen have made of that? As we sailed towards Yarmouth, we checked our progress against landmarks and slowly ‘Albion’ came up to ‘Maud’. A call to Steve Hiscox as we entered Yarmouth and the run of bridges across the river, brought Mike Page overhead in his ‘plane just as we entered Breydon Water. Steve had proved a useful man to know, being volunteer crew on both ‘Albion’ and ‘Maud’, as well as a flying compatriot of Mike Page – but then its not what you know but….etc. Mike and Steve took some wonderful pictures but weren’t able to get as low as they would have liked, owing to buffeting cross winds. ‘Albion’ and ‘Maud’ sailed on in company across Breydon and up the River Waveney to our separate destinations. Our plan had come together and everyone had broad smiles on their faces.
Words: Henry Gowman: past skipper of the Norfolk Wherry ‘Albion’
Photos: Mike Page & Steve Hiscox
Norfolk Wherry Trust
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