Potter Heigham

School holidays

I feel I could write a book as the memories were brilliant! We used to spend the whole summer there and I cried when I had to leave. I remember the boatyard which was run by Mr May, his son was called Billy and he was my brother's best friend. My mom used to give me 6d to go into Lathams and buy maggots to go fishing, and I would sit all day by Mr May's shop and watch the boats struggling to go under the bridge. My dad would take us sailing on the Broads even up to last year before my parents passed away, we would ALWAYS sit and talk about the memories they had and when they spoke not once was there anything said that they regretted. I'll always have great memories of both which I'm so pleased I can remember and also keeps me feeling young.

The Water Otter

Just by the road bridge on the Yarmouth side was a pub with a long grass garden which went down to the river, on the bank was a post with a notice on it which read "Don't disturb the water otter" and tied to the post was a rusty chain. Now the road to the bridge was like a grandstand overlooking the garden and people in the garden would encourage a friend to pull the chain and the people on the bridge, who knew about its secret, would cheer the person on to pull the chain VERY slowly so as not to disturb the water otter. Most people in those days dressed up to go to the Pub, slowly this MUDDY chain was pulled in spreading the mud on the victim until a large muddy, smelly kettle came out of the river at which point the victim would throw the hotter back into the river and invariably the chain would cover him with more mud much to the joy of the onlookers on the bridge.

Family Holiday

As I read out the memorable words from a guide book about the low bridge in Potter Heigham, and thus to be extra careful, I was greeted with the words "Too late" as we rammed the bridge. Thirty years after this photo and we were still causing havoc!