Wildfowling, Marshmen and Inland Waterways
Index
Introduction
The marshes must have seemed very inhospitable to strangers a few hundred years ago, but a living was to be from them by those who knew how. The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads are a unique man-made environment, created by peat-digging. Eel-catching, wildfowling and basket making furnished livelihoods until recent changes have seen the Broads become a National Park which is an important tourist destination.
The Broads and the large expanse of Breydon water where three rivers; the Yare, Bure and Waveney meet were the inspiration for a number of naturalists and artists such as Arthur Patterson, Ted Ellis and Emerson.
Specialist craft such as wildfowling gun punts and cargo wherries operated on the inland waterways and some restored vessels now offer trips aboard.
Drainage of the Fens and Marshes has been a constant battle as people have tried to maintain reclaimed land. Specialist drainage and reed-cutting tools were developed and used by marshmen.
Inland, a number of inland waterways were made navigable by artificial cuts from the 17th century onwards, which were used by commercial traffic.
Wildfowling, Marshmen and Inland Waterways
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A Punt Gun.
This punt gun, now in the Nottage Maritime Institute in Wivenhoe was once used on the nearby Essex salt marshes to shoot large flocks of wild duck to be sold in butchers' shops.
Its total length is nine feet nine inches (2.97 Metres) and it weighs about one hundredweight (50 kilograms). Its bore is one and a half inches (37 mm), about the same calibre as a WWII Bofors AA gun.
The strong breech rope would have firmly attached the gun to the gun punt pointing straight ahead. The punt gunner would aim the whole boat at a flock of swimming ducks (this was not for sport) and when the gun fired the recoil would have caused the punt to go rapidly astern.
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