logoArthur Ransome Slide Show

The pictures shown are clickable links to larger versions.
pictures taken by Bill Wright in April 1995.


The Norfolk Broads (scenes from Coot Club and The Big Six)

  • Broadland scenery
  • Horning village
  • Ranworth
  • other spots

    Pin Mill (scenes from We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and the beginning of Secret Water)

    logoreturn to the Arthur Ransome page


    The Norfolk Broads

    Scenes from Coot Club and The Big Six


    coot A coot. This is what all the fuss was about in Coot Club. Enough modern-day Tom Dugeons have been working on conservation that you see them swimming all over.
    Broads code The Broads Code. A neat postcard with hints on how to behave in the Broads. Fun to see how many of these rules the Hullabaloos broke!


    some Broadland scenery...
    windmill The Broads area looks remarkably Dutch--very flat and open, with enormous skies. Numerous windmills complete the picture.
    cows and sail The combination of farming and the Broads and rivers to sail on makes for some interesting combinations of scenery!
    dike A dike leading to one of the broads. It would have been along a stretch like this that the quanting scene took place.
    sailboat Although the majority of hire boats along the Broads are power craft, there are still some sailboats looking like what the Teaselmust have looked like about.

    Horning village
    Swan Inn The Swan Inn. The is the inn at the bend in the river in the middle of Horning village. The boatsheds are down the river a bit in back of you as this picture is taken.
    Horning Staithe--Arthur Ransome Horning Staithe as it looked in the early 1930s as shown in Coot Club. You can see the Swan in the background.

    [illustration by Arthur Ransome, published in Coot Club ©1934]

    Horning Staithe--1995 The Staithe in 1995. Not a whole lot different, other than it is now a car park, and quite a bit more crowded than in Arthur Ransome's drawing of the same scene!
    Horning Staithe--1970s The Staithe as it looked in the 1970s--a postcard view.
    Horning race I arrived just in time to see the end of a race finishing up at Horning Sailing Club--the same class of boats as the Flash!

    Ranworth
    Ranworth dike The dike leading to Malthouse Broad.
    (This was called Ranworth Broad in the books. Ranworth Broad is located right next to Malthouse, and is closed to boats. The Broads Conservation Centre is located on Ranworth Broad.)
    Malthouse Broad Sailing on Malthouse Broad.
    Malthouse Broad The Maltsters pub. Even if it does not figure at all prominently in the books (though the road where the tire track was found in The Big Six runs off to the left just past the building in this picture), it is a delightful pub, with plenty of boaters from craft tied up at the staithe in for dinner or a pint.

    Ranworth Ferry and Potter Heigham
    Ferry Inn Ranworth Ferry Inn, where Tom saw George Owden as he headed to cast Margoletta off. Number 7's nest is not too much farther down the river than this. There is still a ferry crossing the river at this point, though no longer a chain ferry (there is one at Reedham, however!).
    Potter Heigham sign Many Norfolk villages have elaborately carved and painted signs such as this.
    Potter Heigham bridge The medieval bridge at Potter Heigham. At a highish tide such as here, it is hard to imagine fitting even a moderate sized sailboat through, much less a wherry!

    Pin Mill

    Scenes from We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea and the beginning of Secret Water


    Pin Mill then and now A picture of Pin Mill in 1995, along with Arthur Ransome's drawing of the same scene in the 1930s. Not much has changed!

    [illustration by Arthur Ransome, published in We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, ©1937]

    Pin Mill then and now Another scene with the equivalent Arthur Ransome drawing from We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea.

    [illustration by Arthur Ransome, published in We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, ©1937]

    Alma Cottage Alma Cottage, where the Walker family stayed in both books...when they weren't aboard boats, that is! (My B&B was even neater--a converted Thames lighter barge down just a ways from the Butt & Oyster!)
    Butt & Oyster The Butt & Oyster pub. Everything you would imagine it to be. A butt is a kind of fish--something the kids always wonder about when reading WDMTGTS !
    the hard The hard. This is a paved "sidewalk" stretching out into the mudflats from the bottom of the road in front of the Butt & Oyster. Not a whole lot different from what Arthur Ransome must have seen. From the condition of some of the boats, one wonders if he had seen those particular boats themselves!


    logoreturn to the top of the page logoreturn to the Arthur Ransome page