A Night In The Railway Hotel

[marsh man]

A good mate of mine sent me a email over the Christmas period after I noticed a very enjoyable article he had put on the website about the early days he had spent in a houseboat on the edge of Breydon Water and how he spent most of his holidays shooting and apart from buying a few provisions from a small shop close to the river he more or less lived off what he shot which was mainly Waders in those days , I had many cups of tea with him in the early days when we would all meet up and put the world to right in the smoke filled houseboat , he mentioned he didn't have a Christmas dinner with his family for seven years as he spent his Christmas on the estuary and he was quite happy reading a few shooting books and listening to Radio Caroline , I had no need to sleep in the houseboats as I lived within a couple of hundred yards from our boatshed , but after having a yarn with him I did tell him about an uncomfortable night I once spent up there on a Boxing Day .

From the day I got married I always went with the flow of the tide getting all the festive food and drink in for the big day and running the presents about to the in laws and a few friends we had at the time , but once the big day was over I have always had Boxing Day to myself and very often left my house in the dark and came back home several hours later in the dark. Well one year in the 70s my wife said she was going to her sisters on Boxing Day and might stay overnight and do I mind , not one bit as I will be out all day and might not get home till late as I was taking my gun punt up the estuary and I was govern by the tides , so early that morning I got away and rowed nearly three miles up the estuary as I was going to walk some of marshes up , after tying the punt at the Pumping station on the North wall I took a bag full of grub for me and my dog down the railway track where the railway workers had a cosy hut made out of railway sleepers , this was kept locked up but with my dad working on the railway I soon found out where the key was kept and with no trains running over Christmas I didn't have to worry about anyone using it , not that I would had been worried anyway as only one train went past each day when they were working , having soon found the key I dumped all the stuff down on there little table and set the fire in the stove for when I came back for dinner.

After a good walk around and dropping onto a duck or two it was time to head back for something to eat and drink , the stove was soon blazing away and before to long the light outside was going and the tide was beginning to flood back up , so I thought rather than rush about and row all that way back against the tide I will flight on the embankment a bit further up and stay in the hut overnight , have a morning flight then walk up a few more marshes and then come back home  with the tide , if I remember rightly the evening flight was a blank so I had no extra weight to take back to resting place , it was already dark and all I had for lighting was a couple of ole candles and the light from the fire , I didn't have any books like my mate had or a radio and time started to drag on a bit and when the fuel on the fire was running out along with one of the candles it was only eight o clock and I had a long ole night ahead of me , I began to wander if I had made a mistake and should had rowed home , still it was to late now and at times I nodded off and woke up on and off all night , at long last it was time to head out again , after a walk along the bottom of the wall to see if any duck were within range and another walk around the marshes it was time to make sure my overnight accommodation was all in order and left it more or less the same as I found it ,all I had to do now was to cart everything back to my punt and point it towards Yarmouth and row it back home .

Getting back home my poor ole dog must had been starving and the first thing my wife said was , where on earth have you been as she only knew I hadn't been home was when she noticed the bed hadn't been slept in , when I told her I stayed overnight she said you must be mad , and that was the first time I thought she was talking some sense , mind you she had said that many more times since that Boxing Day in the 70s .

If you want to read what life was like you can find it just below the Great Yarmouth Wildfowlers website and you will be able to see a photo of me when I was about 18 , you might be able to guess what one is me as we were known as The Breydon Pirates which sum'd us up nicely, The Post is called Notes From A Breydon Houseboat 1946 - 2021

THANKS      MM

[Gerry78]

Yet Again MM your Wildfowling stories are fantastic takes you back to a time when life was more simple as well as getting a shot on the marsh or not it didn’t matter just being out with your dog Good enough You should put a book together with these tales Il have to check out that photo I’m sure you’re the best looking Fella in It thanks for posting mate Gerry 😉😉😉

[islandgun]

Nice one MM.. excelled yourself..

mind you

"You must be mad, the first thing time she talked any sense"  does that include when she said "I do" at a certain ceremony  years ago.😉

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Gerry78 said:

Yet Again MM your Wildfowling stories are fantastic takes you back to a time when life was more simple as well as getting a shot on the marsh or not it didn’t matter just being out with your dog Good enough You should put a book together with these tales Il have to check out that photo I’m sure you’re the best looking Fella in It thanks for posting mate Gerry 😉😉😉

Evening Gerry ..... I am sure life was at a slower pace in those days but they say that life is what you make of it and around these parts you don't rush about anywhere , we enjoyed a pint of beer the same as anyone else but all our early days revolved around the estuary , either shooting in the Winter , fishing in the Summer or just messing about on the river like they say , we acquired a sail that started life off in a dingy ( that is a story in itself ) and the ole boy who had the boatshed next to ours who was the last punt gunner worked at a shipyard and he kindly made us a brass bracket that the mast went in , this was brilliant and how we never turned our boat over the years was by more luck than judgement , we often went up to Berney Arms just to have pint of beer and that alone was getting on to a 10 mile return trip , our boatshed was kept in tip top condition as me and my mate both worked for builders and very often there was some paint left over , or to be more precise we made sure there was some left over , the cabin its'self was around 12ft x 10ft , we had a bench down one side that was often filled up will coal after the little coasters tied up to our stagings to wash the decks down after it had unloaded it's cargo of coal at the beet factory , in the corner was a pot belly Tortoise stove , one or shooting and duck prints on the wall and at one time we had a stuffed drake Pintail on a shelf , for lighting we had a Tilly lamp and when a few of the boys came in and got the playing cards out the air was thick with all kind of smoke and I well remember one night about half a dozen of us were playing cards and not only was the stove glowing red the metal flue pipe was also a bright red with the amount of heat going up the flue , the ole Tilly lamp then started to splutter and very nearly went out , we knew it wasn't low on parafin but what we did't realise was there wasn't any Oxygen left in the air to keep it going and our wildfowling days could have been over before they had hardly begun   Happy days .

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, islandgun said:

Nice one MM.. excelled yourself..

mind you

"You must be mad, the first thing time she talked any sense"  does that include when she said "I do" at a certain ceremony  years ago.😉

Before I got married I was told by a wise ole boi ,to start off with how you mean to carry on , rather than the other way round , mind you his marriage didn't last long

I had none of that going down on one knee rubbish , we had been going out with each other for about three years and one night we went in a pub that done receptions and I got yarning to the landlord and I asked him what dates he had after the end of January , he went through his book and he said a couple of dates in March , no that's no good as I normally go on Spring drillings in March , so he had another look and said what about the 2nd of April , yea that sound about right , so I said to my then girl friend we are getting married on April the second , I daren't pick the 1st in case she thought it was April fools , Now how romantic is that for a young(ish) Norfolk boy 

[Gerry78]

50 minutes ago, marsh man said:

Evening Gerry ..... I am sure life was at a slower pace in those days but they say that life is what you make of it and around these parts you don't rush about anywhere , we enjoyed a pint of beer the same as anyone else but all our early days revolved around the estuary , either shooting in the Winter , fishing in the Summer or just messing about on the river like they say , we acquired a sail that started life off in a dingy ( that is a story in itself ) and the ole boy who had the boatshed next to ours who was the last punt gunner worked at a shipyard and he kindly made us a brass bracket that the mast went in , this was brilliant and how we never turned our boat over the years was by more luck than judgement , we often went up to Berney Arms just to have pint of beer and that alone was getting on to a 10 mile return trip , our boatshed was kept in tip top condition as me and my mate both worked for builders and very often there was some paint left over , or to be more precise we made sure there was some left over , the cabin its'self was around 12ft x 10ft , we had a bench down one side that was often filled up will coal after the little coasters tied up to our stagings to wash the decks down after it had unloaded it's cargo of coal at the beet factory , in the corner was a pot belly Tortoise stove , one or shooting and duck prints on the wall and at one time we had a stuffed drake Pintail on a shelf , for lighting we had a Tilly lamp and when a few of the boys came in and got the playing cards out the air was thick with all kind of smoke and I well remember one night about half a dozen of us were playing cards and not only was the stove glowing red the metal flue pipe was also a bright red with the amount of heat going up the flue , the ole Tilly lamp then started to splutter and very nearly went out , we knew it wasn't low on parafin but what we did't realise was there wasn't any Oxygen left in the air to keep it going and our wildfowling days could have been over before they had hardly begun   Happy days .

Just brilliant MM unfortunately modern day life can be crazy were I work but me getting the odd morning out for ducks 🦆 brings me back to relaxation for a few hours anyway Great post 👍👍

[Penelope]

14 hours ago, marsh man said:

Evening Gerry ..... I am sure life was at a slower pace in those days but they say that life is what you make of it and around these parts you don't rush about anywhere , we enjoyed a pint of beer the same as anyone else but all our early days revolved around the estuary , either shooting in the Winter , fishing in the Summer or just messing about on the river like they say , we acquired a sail that started life off in a dingy ( that is a story in itself ) and the ole boy who had the boatshed next to ours who was the last punt gunner worked at a shipyard and he kindly made us a brass bracket that the mast went in , this was brilliant and how we never turned our boat over the years was by more luck than judgement , we often went up to Berney Arms just to have pint of beer and that alone was getting on to a 10 mile return trip , our boatshed was kept in tip top condition as me and my mate both worked for builders and very often there was some paint left over , or to be more precise we made sure there was some left over , the cabin its'self was around 12ft x 10ft , we had a bench down one side that was often filled up will coal after the little coasters tied up to our stagings to wash the decks down after it had unloaded it's cargo of coal at the beet factory , in the corner was a pot belly Tortoise stove , one or shooting and duck prints on the wall and at one time we had a stuffed drake Pintail on a shelf , for lighting we had a Tilly lamp and when a few of the boys came in and got the playing cards out the air was thick with all kind of smoke and I well remember one night about half a dozen of us were playing cards and not only was the stove glowing red the metal flue pipe was also a bright red with the amount of heat going up the flue , the ole Tilly lamp then started to splutter and very nearly went out , we knew it wasn't low on parafin but what we did't realise was there wasn't any Oxygen left in the air to keep it going and our wildfowling days could have been over before they had hardly begun   Happy days .

Scary. A carp angler died this winter after running a heater in his zipped up bivvy and falling asleep.

[greenshank1]

Great stories 👍

 

[marsh man]

11 hours ago, Penelope said:

Scary. A carp angler died this winter after running a heater in his zipped up bivvy and falling asleep.

Yea we did have a young couple die in a tent while on holiday , I believe the cause of death was carbon monoxide , we never looked at anything we done was dangerous , foolhardy yes , but dangerous no , we even had a inshore lifeboat come after us once as the person who called them thought we were sitting in the water or our boat was sinking in the choppy conditions , when we saw the Blue light we thought they were on exercises and had no idea they were coming up to see how we were , this caused great amusement at the lifeboat station as both my brothers were on the main lifeboat crew at the time , nothing was said from the inshore crew and they just waved when they turned round and went back to the station .

[Ttfjlc]

another good tale to read marsh man, I've said it before and I'll say it again, you really should write a book 👍 

[Old Boggy]

Great tales there John and an absolute joy to read. Thanks for posting. As said above, you really should write a book of all your wildfowling and of course any nefarious deeds that you no doubt performed in your younger days.

Keep them coming.

Best wishes,

Chris