HEATHER

Welcome to Heather

Houseboat of character, docked in Hoveton by the River Bure on the Norfolk Broads Waterways.

Heather is cared for by a partnership of friends and family. Our aim is to preserve the distinctive style of the houseboat and enable future generations to enjoy her charms.

Explore the riverside, browse the shops and places to eat and drink ~ and much more beyond monumental Wroxham Bridge.

Andrew, Timothy and Christopher

20 January 2013

The Importance of being Ernest


The site of the Ernest L Wood's boat building premises (pictured) on Lower Street, Horning. This is accessible at the end of a dog legged shaped dyke, off the River Bure. Here, Heather is believed to have been converted from a dumb (unmechanised) flat barge in an earlier wooden boat house. The buildings were some of the first developments on the wild marshland around the old Ferry Inn. A few minutes walk from the main village, the area was referred to as 'the wilderness' in Arthur Ransome's Broadland stories, Coot Club and the Big Six.

Next door to Ernest's premises was Turner's Boatyard. The adjoining Ferry Boatyard survives both Turner's and Wood's. Heather joined a fleet of classic boats at the first public rallies of the Vintage Wooden Boat Association, staged at the Ferry in the 1990's. Quarter of a century has passed since the association was formed. Looking forward, we have ambitious new plans for Heather within the next eighteen months.

Chris

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King's Head Staithe, Hoveton, pictured from Wroxham public Parish Staithe