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Stalham, River Ant

Stalham was once a thriving market town with a large cattle and general market, since 2002 it has been blighted by the curse of Tesco, a large supermarket and petrol station has been built on the market site and the Abattoir site has been acquired by Tesco for warehouses, etc. The High Street has gone the way of many towns and villages with small shops closed and a growth of charity shops and take-a-ways.

Ironically with the help of Tesco providing the trades people and paying for the electricity supply, fittings and spotlights, a Charitable Trust was able to open the old 1833 Coronation fire engine house next to the church in the High Street as a tiny museum. The museum was opened in 2002 to coincide with the opening of the new Tesco, in the summer the museum is open a few days a week and is worth a visit.

The Museum of the Broads on Poor's Staithe traces the effect of man on the Broadland environment and is very interesting and informative.

The area around Stalham Dyke is dominated by Richardson's boatyard who have hundreds of boats to hire most of them acquired from other boatyards when they update there fleets with newer boats. Rumour has it that they have been granted planning permission to build houses on some of the yard, a large number of their boats have been recently sold off, the thin end of the wedge?

1909

Lookings towards Poor's Staithe, the low building on the right now houses The Museum of the Broads, behind it is the old Excise house built in 1812 so goods could be inspected when arriving from Yarmouth. On the left the boatyard became home to Southgates boat hire, it has changed hands several times and now belongs to ' Moonfleet Marine ' boat hire who used to be at Belaugh above Wroxham bridge, they are one of the few independant yards left and have some excellent well maintained craft.

2004

Stalham Staithe, the low building on the right can be seen, to the left is ' Moonfleet Marine ' with some of their hire fleet moored up.

1913

The opposite view from the image above looking down the dyke from what is now ' Moonfleet Marine ' boat hire.

c1950

From the same viewpoint as the above image, motor cruisers have replaced the sailing craft at what could, at that time be ' Southgates ' boat hire.

1965

My Mother and Father, Pam, Sue and Bob, dog Tim at Stalham Staithe. We had hired two cruisers for a week, Mom and Dad had ' Queen Anne ' from Barnes Craft, Wroxham and we had ' Emiline ' from Porter Haylett, Wroxham.

c1970

Upstream on the River Ant on the way to Wayford bridge stands Hunsett Mill. It is said to be the most photographed mill on the Broads. Sadly today the site has become somewhat neglected.

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