Interview of Hubert Buttrum

30/11/08

Subject: Childhood Memories of the River

I was born in Dec 1929 in Norwich. My mother and her two sisters, Mrs Casson and Mrs Clarke, who lived in Brundall on Blofield Road, were always very close to each other and I would be brought to Brundall most week-ends for the family get togethers. My first clear memories of Brundall are when I was about 5 or 6 years old. My grandparents, who lived in Blofield at this time, celebrated their Golden Wedding at my aunt’s house on Blofield Road with the rest of the family (see photo).

By the age of 8 my cousin Ben Casson would take me fishing down Riverside in Hobro’s dyke and the main river. From the age of 9-10 I was allowed more freedom and joined in with other Brundall boys in many activities - canoeing, fishing, exploring the marshes and swimming from the quay heading behind the Yare Hotel. The road from Brundall station to Coldham Hall, which was not much more than a track at this time, had a number of places where one could fish or launch a canoe into the main river – one such space was just as you got to Coldham Hall ferry – my parents would come down at the weekend and we would all walk there and cross the ferry for a family day out. There was a grassy area for kids like me to play on and there was a huge swing that I can remember well.

Back to the Brundall side of the river at the station end – the first dyke on the left hand side was known as Fisher’s dyke mainly because a Mr Fisher owned the land on one side and lived there on a MTB – motor torpedo boat. It is now officially known as Hobrough’s dyke.
Robin Fisher, his son, also lived there and was a good friend of mine for many years, well into my thirties. Robin now lives on the Isle of Man and has kindly passed on to me photographs of the area at this time. Carrying on down towards Coldham Hall and referring to the left hand side of the path, there were no boat sheds that I can remember - it was all marsh. One thing that is still very clear in my mind was a thatched barn which was virtually situated in the middle of the marsh and one of the activities the boys enjoyed was to run out to this barn, you had to run otherwise you went through the sedge. There were always barn owls there. Of course it’s now long gone, swallowed up by one of the boatyards.


A gentleman by the name of Mr Stephenson, he wasn’t a local man, came to Brundall and lodged with one of my Aunts (Mrs Clarke) whilst he built, to my memory, one of the first boatyards along Riverside. He was always telling of the vast amounts of hard core that was needed to create the driveway to the yard, as it just kept disappearing. In the period from 1939 -1948 there were few boatyards in Brundall. Brooms had long been established. There was a boat shed along the path from the Yare hotel towards Brooms. It was run (or used) by a chap called Charlie Gibbs. Charlie Gibbs was a local wild fowler, fisherman and boat repairer and reed cutter. It could be same person in the photograph of a gentleman holding a pike but the pike seems a bit small for his standard. One of his examples of pike was displayed in what was then the Yare Hotel in a display cabinet – it was a very large pike in the region of 25 – 30 lbs and he was very pleased with this and he used to tell people how it had been caught by him three times – each time he caught the pike he used to make a notch in one of the fins.

During the war years, 39-45 most children especially those living in the country were oblivious to what was really going on in the world and carried on playing as normal. The river and places like Surlingham broad were the main attraction for Brundall children. A number of steam driven ferries from Yarmouth were moored along Hobrough’s dyke; they just had to be played on. Before the war these ferries would take passengers from quay near Gt Yarmouth station to Gorleston, landing by the Pier Hotel. This how our parents would take us to the beach.

The plot behind the Yare Hotel where Charlie Gibbs’ boatshed was is where I learnt to swim at the age of nine with the aid of an old car inner tube and a bit of encouragement from the more senior boys. (See photo of quay heading). In the dyke near the boatshed local wildfowlers used to keep duck punts – there were at least 3 or 4 and the people that I remember owning them were Charlie Gibbs, his son Gordon Gibbs, my cousin Ben Casson (who died quite recently, he was the village plumber) and later on people like John Cooper, and Mr Parker (who was a director of Steward and Patterson’s Brewery), this quay heading was where a lot of our playtime was spent.

Many times we used to cross the river Yare and one of our favourite places was Surlingham Broad using canoes – the word danger was not in our vocabulary and we would attempt to swim from the quay behind the Yare up to Coldham Hall with only a rowing boat in attendance in case we got into difficulty or wanted to rest, most of the boys were 9 to 15 years old. I can only remember one girl joining in but I can’t remember her name. She came from Brundall Gardens, near the station.

Later on my cousin would let me use his duck punt which I could row and go much further, we would go onto Surlingham Broad to fish.

Soon after the war started in 1939 somebody had the idea that they should sink old wherries and partially destroyed boats on the broad and join them up with steel cables – the idea being to prevent the enemy landing sea planes. Looking back with hind sight no one would dream of landing a seaplane on Surlingham broad. There is still evidence of the wherries being there even today – on entering the broad from the Coldham Hall end the graveyard is just round to the right.

During the war wherries were still operating – I knew people who lived on them – one was moored in a dyke opposite the entrance to Surlingham Broad and the lady who owned it came from Lancashire or Yorkshire, she used to treat us boys to cups of drink etc. My aunt Mrs Clarke used to supply her with eggs and one of my jobs was to take these eggs to her. This enabled me to keep a canoe there so we had less distance to go to get to the broad. The cutting in which the wherry was moored has long since been filled in. Many years later, about 45, on I actually bought the site from a Mrs Burnell Parker, dismantled the bungalow that had been erected on it and rebuilt it with a new one called Moonshine. I kept that for about 10 years.

All the plots along the riverside from which we were able to gain access to the river, have changed hands and been built on.

Shooting was one of the occupations of the senior members like the Gibbs and Cassons but I was quite often invited by my cousin Ben Casson to go with him and he set me up with a 4.10 single barrel shot gun early on in life. We would to go shooting on Surlingham and Rockland Broads, apart from duck and other wild fowl we also shot the coypu. These were becoming a menace and causing much damage to the banks of the river. A tail of a coypu rat would fetch a payment of several shillings at a post office.

The coypus had been imported from South America and bred locally for their pelts. They were kept wired in on a little broad just North of the railway, still in existence. They escaped and multiplied and became a nuisance – many farmers further down towards Yarmouth found that their tractors would fall into large holes, which the coypus had dug in the banks of the river.

Initially occupants of the riverside bungalows had to fetch drinking water from a communal tap, still available.

We were not allowed to go into Brundall Gardens but as boys we still did. I remember a thatched bungalow, near to Brundall Gardens station and still there today but in a very derelict condition. The local scout mistress would invite other groups to come and camp there.

From the Yare Hotel there was a footpath, now part of Brooms boatyard. The end opposite Staithe Lane there was a cottage, still shown on the 1960’s photograph, was used by wherries and others.

Coal was brought by rail to Brundall station and off loaded into bunkers in the siding just East of the station. Local merchants would deliver it from there.

The Yare Hotel was managed by Charlie Davies. I wasn’t old enough to drink alcohol but used to go in with my cousin after we had been shooting or fishing.

Brooms have been part of the Riverside for over one hundred years. Building yachts, motor cruises for hire, luxury cruises and ocean going vessels for sale.

On one occasion a group of friends and I hired a rowing boat from the Brooms and decided to row towards Rockland Broad but hadn’t reckoned on the tide being against us for the return journey it was nearly midnight before I got back and my uncle and aunt were rather upset about this and I got clobbered quite hard.

Another wildfowler was a fellow called Alan Savory – he’s written books on wildfowling. He lived on Strumpshaw Road and owned a stretch of marsh which is now part of the RSPB. As boys we would go looking for bird nests.

I have owned many boats in my life, some I have built from kits but the canoe I built when I was no more than twelve with help from my father will be remembered most. Later on one of my school friends and me built a canoe each, they were 18 foot long, a double canvas covered canoe, which folded in the middle and could be towed behind a pushbike, we even added sails and leeboards (see photo).

At the station end of Fishers dyke was a building that became known as the Band Stand. (See photo), It was a hexagonal shaped building with partitions in between and seating. Local people would go and sit there on a Sunday and chat and fish in the dyke nearby – the local council was responsible for building it for the benefit for the residents of Brundall (what happened to it?)

Robin Fisher and his father cut in more dykes in from the river near Coldham Hall, parallel to Hobroughs Dyke, which has now been developed into a large marina.

Finally in the thirties and forties it was nearly all marshes and somebody even tried to use them for grazing cattle on at the turn of the century. Which is why the barn was there to either store the cattle or use as a milking parlour?

Riverside Estate consisted mainly of Chalet type bungalows facing the main river for many years. The boatyards on the east side of the track to Coldham hall didn’t get going until after WW2. Mr Stephenson, as mentioned above probably started it all. He eventually sold out and went to live at Blakeney, he wrote a book on the history of Blakeney but not on Brundall.