HICKLING BROAD.
[Picture: Decorative drop capital] Heigham Bridge is a small stone one,
with not much room to get through, and a little above it is the railway
bridge, over which the Eastern and Midlands Railway runs, with a station
not far off--Potter Heigham. Near the station is the "Falgate" Inn,
where there is comfortable accommodation. A gate hangs over the inn by
way of a sign, and on its bars is inscribed the following--
"This gate hang high
But hinder none,
Refresh and pay
And travel on,"
The omission of the _s_ in the third person singular of the verb is truly
Norfolk, and common even among the middle classes. At the bridge is the
"Waterman's Arms," where one or two bedrooms, and a small parlour, all
scrupulously clean, are obtainable. Just by the bridge, in a sort of
wooden "Peggoty's Hut," lives Applegate, who has good boats, sailing and
rowing, for hire, stowed away in a remarkably neat boat-house. The
fishing all round is as good as it can be, and I never fail to get a jack
near the bridge, while, within four miles lie Hickling and Somerton
Broads, Heigham Sounds, and Horsey Mere. For myself, I should prefer
this as a fishing and boating station, to any other, because of the
wildness of the district.
[Picture: Hickling Broad]
The tide ebbs and flows strongly; and I caught Wynne standing on the
bridge, and looking in a perplexed way at the rate the perfectly fresh
water of the river was running up stream. The exit of these waters--at
Yarmouth--was twenty miles away, by water; Heigham Bridge is only between
four and five miles from the sea, in a direct line, and the water was now
running eastward, towards the sea, and the lakes, which daily rise and
fall, though only a few inches, actuated by the salt tide, "so near, and
yet so far."
"Verily, this is a strange country," said Wynne, "and not, I should
think, beyond the possibility of a sudden visit from the sea."
"No, those light-coloured mounds in the distance are the sea-banks, of
sand, only held together by scanty marram grasses. We will pay them a
closer visit."
We got the lateener through the bridges, taking sufficient things for a
night's absence, and sailed away up the Thurne, which seems now to lose
its name as a river, and take that of the "Hundred Stream." About half a
mile above the railway bridge is the mouth of Kendal, or Candler's, Dyke,
a narrow winding stream, up which we turned, soon to find ourselves
bordered by tall reeds on either hand, and then sailing through a
wilderness of water and reeds so tall that they bounded our view. This
is Heigham Sounds, now greatly overgrown, and a capital place for wild
fowl; also for rudd, which here attain a very large size, and go in
immense shoals. Out of the channel the water is extremely shallow. In
the channel, particularly in Kendal Dyke, I have caught a good number of
pike.
The fishing on all these Broads--Hickling, Horsey, and the Sounds--is
nominally preserved, but fair anglers do not seem to be interfered with.
At all events, in the channel and the dykes one may pretty well do as one
likes, and no attempt has ever been made to set up an exclusive right to
the rivers. I note that a Fishery Preservation Society has been formed
to abolish illegal netting, and to overlook this district, and under the
auspices of this it is probable that riparian owners will not object to
anglers taking a share of the superabundant fish out of the Broads. I
call the fish superabundant advisedly, and will adhere to the term until
anglers can assure me that they know what to do (usefully) with the
number of fish they catch, and cease from throwing them away on the bank,
after ascertaining their weight and number.
[Picture: Dyke at Potter Heigham]
Well, we sailed as close to the wind as we could--and nothing goes closer
than a lateener--and could just lie the channel through another reedy
lake, called Whiteslea, on to the vast expanse of Hickling Broad, a lake
400 acres in extent, and looking three times as large, owing to the
extreme lowness of its shores, the absence of any landmarks, and the
great concave sky, which seems to fit close down all around it. A
channel across it is marked by posts, which we left to starboard, as we
sailed over it. The width of the channel you will have to determine by
experiment, as there is no guide. At a guess, it is twenty yards wide,
and all the rest of the Broad is so shallow that you might wade over it,
and find a hard, yellow, gravel bottom almost everywhere. Trusting in
our two-feet draught, we sailed hither and thither, and felt our way
checked, as the keel cut through masses of weed, and then the bound
forward, as the boat entered a part clear of weeds. These bunches of
weed have lately increased greatly in Hickling Broad, which used to be
comparatively free from them, and the promontories of reeds are pushing
themselves further and further into the lake, and the bays between are
getting shallower. Still, the lake is large enough, as yet, to be able
to stand a little filching from.
We sailed down to Catfield staithe, on the western side of the Broad, and
not far from Catfield railway station, on the line already alluded to.
Then we went to Hickling staithe, at the north end, where there is an
inn, the "Pleasure Boat," and walked into the village to post letters,
and to receive some.
Boats of a rough kind can be obtained here for fishing purposes. They
are long, narrow, and flat-bottomed, and the usual method of propulsion
is by "_setting_." The setter sits in the extreme stern, and pushes the
boat along with a light pole, at a great rate. There are often setting
races at local regattas, and great fun they are.
[Picture: Hickling Staithe]
The number of broken-up lateeners on the shores of the Broad attest the
decay of large pleasure-boat sailing on these remote waters, but the
smaller class of centre-board boats are coming into favour, and are,
perhaps, more suitable.
After lunch we had to reef the great foresail, which was not an easy
operation, as the reef was taken in along the yard, and we had to go into
the jolly boat to get to the end of it. The jolly boat committed a joke
its species is very fond of, under similar circumstances; that is, it
slipped away from under one of us, and left him clinging to the yard,
with his legs in the water.
[Picture: Martham Broad]
I shall never forget three days I spent, on Whiteslea and Heigham Sound,
for the fishing and fowling, one December with a friend. I stayed in the
little cottage on the small island in Whiteslea. We had two boats and
two men to attend to us during the day, but at night we were left to
ourselves in the lonely house, where the water oozed through the floor,
and the beds were so damp that I slept completely clothed in my oilies.
There was a bitter north-easter sweeping over the dry reeds under a
leaden sky, and the sport was of the slowest. I never felt the cold so
much, accustomed though I am to winter pike-fishing.
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