River Ant - Norfolk Broads (The Broads Authority)

Norfolk Broads (The Broads Authority)

At Honing Bridge the course enters the The Broads, administered by The Broads Authority. Here the canal cuts through a marshy wooded area called Dilham Broad and again curves north east around the village of Dilham, passing under Tonnage Bridge. Below Tonnage Bridge are the last limits of the Navigation through Broad Fen before reverting back to the river. Just before Wayford Bridge, a branch of the canal called Tyler’s Cut runs off to the west. This branch links the villages of Dilham and Smallburgh to the river and the rest of the broads although it is at the moment only navigable by very small boats. At Wayford Bridge the river passes the Wayford Bridge Hotel and its row of tiny houseboats lining the east bank of the river. There is only 8 feet of headroom under the bridge, which carries the A149 road, and the river is only three feet deep at this point, making it only passable by the smallest of pleasure craft.

Some years ago the ancient hard surface of the ‘ford’ which gave rise to the name “Wayford” was found on the river bed here. Just the other side of the bridge there are boat yards on both banks and the river follows a fairly straight course until it reaches the photogenic “Hunsett Drainage Mill”. Here, where the river turns south and passes the channel leading to the staithes at Stalham and Sutton, the river banks of Barton Fen are crowded with trees, marshes, and reeds, the latter formerly harvested and used for thatching for centuries past.