Archive image discovery

This rare picture showing Heather moored near the River Bure in Horning surfaced this week. Carol Gingell of Broadland Memories spotted the photograph whilst going through a hoard of 1960's pictures. The photograph was taken around 1963 and shows Heather (centre right) tucked between houseboats Shamrock and Clover laying 'amidst most pleasant surroundings' at Turner's Boatyard (please see 8th December 2011 Blog entry). Andrew Day, who owns the photograph has kindly allowed us to use the image.

On the extreme left of this interesting picture can be seen two boathouse roof gables ~ the then active premises of Ernest L Woods. This once renowned boatbuilding yard is where Heather is believed to have been converted into a houseboat over thirty years before.

It is hoped further information will come to light on the small but important Turner & Woods boatyards and the surviving houseboat, Heather in the future.

The crew are grateful to Andrew Day for permission to use the image and Carol Gingell of Broadland Memories Archive.

Heather joins the modern age ~ social media

As part of our plans for Heather, the crew are using social media to log developments, events, voyages and altogether share the houseboat. At the same time we can promote similar historic vessels, the diverse Broads area on Heather's doorstep and a number of worthy organisations.

A hand written Log & Guest Book was started in 2007 when Heather moved to Hoveton & Wroxham and details important activity on board. We began this online version ~ Heather's Blog in Autumn 2011. The houseboat has since joined Facebook, the Norfolk Broads Forum, Twitter and shares pictures on photobucket. We will develop a website in the future.

Follow us on Twitter at @HBoatHeather

Repairs at Royall's Boatyard

Heather laying in the strops of the gantry at Royall's Boatyard, Hoveton. The after part of the hull was checked by Nigel Royall to assess its condition following her haul out in 2011. The stern post had a minor leak and has been repaired by replacing two ancient steel bolts.

Check out Heather's last visit to Royall's Boatyard, custom punt building and other work of this long established boatyard on their Blog: royallsboatyard.blogspot.com