It was once a great trade highway.
But the days of coasters steaming along the River Yare between Great Yarmouth and Norwich are long gone.
And, in a sign of the changing times, the Broads Authority (BA) is now considering scrapping its pilots - the experts who helped guide the large, sea-going vessels along the waterways.
With no ships having required ‘pilotage’ in the last eight years, the service has become almost entirely redundant and may now be scrapped in its current form.
In a report to the BA’s navigation committee, officials said there was no expectation that large freight vessels which may require pilotage will return to the waterways in the foreseeable future.
They branded the current pilotage arrangement as “not sustainable” while also not meeting the port marine safety code.
The Yare was an important trade artery, bringing ships from the sea more than 20 miles inland into the heart of Norwich, which had a bustling port in the area between Carrow and Foundry bridges.
The port was still in regular use in the 1960s, but shipping declined, as industries left the King Street and Riverside Road areas and freight vessels got larger and larger - making the confined waters of the Yare and Wensum unsuitable.
It was not uncommon for large coasters to run aground on the reaches between Norwich and Yarmouth.
The number of large vessels arriving by sea and travelling on the Broads is now extremely low.
A BA officer said “over the last 20 years there has been fewer and fewer people needing pilotage” making it harder to train anyone to carry out the service.
Rather than having a pilot on hand, the authority has instead suggested that a risk assessment be carried out on a case-by-case basis for large vessels entering the Broads.
Where support is needed, they could instead be escorted or helped by a ranger.
While the report suggested the size of the vessel be set at 20m, members of the committee argued this was overly prohibitive, requesting it be increased to 24m.
The report did not cover the 'bridge pilots' who help vessels navigate the low bridges at Potter Heigham and Wroxham.
NORWICH'S BUSY PORT
The use of Norwich's river as a port stretches back at least to medieval times, but its current standing as a port dates to an Act of Parliament in 1827.
The existence of Norwich's port is the reason that all bridges over the Yare and Wensum between Foundry Bridge - near the city train station - and the sea must be able to open to shipping or be high enough - like the A47 Postwick flyover - for vessels to pass beneath.
Over the years, a wide variety of wares arrived and left from the heart of Norwich via ship.
Among the items travelling the furthest were shipments of concentrated fruit juice from South America for use in the Robinson’s brand of squash, made at the Colman's plant.
Read's flour mill, which stood near Carrow Bridge and is now upmarket flats, was used for deliveries of grain.
A scrapyard, further along King Street, required a lot of shipping, while Baltic Wharf, closer to Foundry Bridge, was used for importing timber from Scandinavia.
Large vessels could not get past Foundry Bridge, but a fleet of lighters would take coal up to the gasworks on Gas Hill.
Norwich Power Station, near Crown Point, also used coal brought by tramp steamers from Newcastle.
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