Secret canal system - Honing, Norfolk

[magpie patrick]

Doing some research on another canal related job I spotted this - OS plan of circa 1900 attached

 

The plan shows the North Walsham and Dilham Canal at Honing Lock and Honing Bridge, which is what I'm supposed to be looking at, but just south of the canal is an area  named on the plan as "The Islands" with what I first took to be an eleborate network of provate roads around it. However closer examination reveals that these "roads" have footbridges and boat houses associated with them! On Google Earth now the area is just a mass of trees but the area still seems to be "in water" according to the modern OS map but at 1:25,000 details doesn't really show up

There is generally a lot of water courses in this area, indeed often there is a lot of water! But it's the boat houses that piqued my interest, these are clearly not just drainage ditches...

 

This post is all I know - anyone else any knowledge or ideas? 

[IanM]

It was a kind of wooded, water park.

 

Popular with the gentry to wander and boat around.  I first came across it when I was involved in the early days of the restoration of the North Walsham and Dilham.

 

All completely overgrown now I seem to recall.

 

Edited to add: 

 

https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF57933-Dilham-Islands-pleasure-garden&Index=50468&RecordCount=57338&SessionID=fd7e1a24-fc09-4388-aba7-b5e47de2bc6e

 

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/20868092.dilham-islands-open-day-offers-rare-glimpse-victorian-pleasure-garden/

 

 

Edited January 26, 2023 by IanM

[magnetman]

Ah, a Victorian pleasure garden.  How pleasant. 

 

 

[magpie patrick]

20 minutes ago, IanM said:

It was a kind of wooded, water park.

 

Popular with the gentry to wander and boat around.  I first came across it when I was involved in the early days of the restoration of the North Walsham and Dilham.

 

All completely overgrown now I seem to recall.

 

Edited to add: 

 

https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF57933-Dilham-Islands-pleasure-garden&Index=50468&RecordCount=57338&SessionID=fd7e1a24-fc09-4388-aba7-b5e47de2bc6e

 

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/20868092.dilham-islands-open-day-offers-rare-glimpse-victorian-pleasure-garden/

 

 

Thank you - if they open the again it would be worth a gander over there, even from Frome! 

 

6 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Ah, a Victorian pleasure garden.  How pleasant. 

 

 

 The recently departed Mike Chapman (my predecessor as Chairman of the SCCS) advised that pleasure gardens where where a Victorian gent could take a lady without undue gossip - and a lady could go for a promenade with a husband, hers or someone elses....

[Athy]

5 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Thank you - if they open the again it would be worth a gander over there, even from Frome! 

 

 The recently departed Mike Chapman (my predecessor as Chairman of the SCCS) advised that pleasure gardens where where a Victorian gent could take a lady without undue gossip - and a lady could go for a promenade with a husband, hers or someone elses....

So, "pleasure garden" may have been something of a euphemism, which leads one (well, this one) to wonder whether the boat houses contained facilities for humans as well as boats.

   It's a fascinating discovery; I wonder if there are any photos (of boats on it, I mean). Perhaps Ian may know.

[robtheplod]

So i could have my narrowboat just up the road then????

[magnetman]

There was an exhibition in one of the London museums some yars ago with an excellent impression of a victorian pleasure garden. Good time travel that was. Those Victorians definitely knew what they were doing. 

 

 

 

 

. 

[Hudds Lad]

12 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

So i could have my narrowboat just up the road then????

Norfolk enchants?

[magnetman]

It's fortunate it was in Honing rather than Horning otherwise it might have cause some tittering. 

[ditchcrawler]

Something similar and not far away Broads | South Walsham | Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden (fairhavengarden.co.uk)

[David Mack]

19 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Something similar and not far away Broads | South Walsham | Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden (fairhavengarden.co.uk)

Their 'Where to find us' page even has directions for those arriving by boat!

[IanM]

15 hours ago, Athy said:

So, "pleasure garden" may have been something of a euphemism, which leads one (well, this one) to wonder whether the boat houses contained facilities for humans as well as boats.

   It's a fascinating discovery; I wonder if there are any photos (of boats on it, I mean). Perhaps Ian may know.

 

I'm sure someone showed me some photos years ago but I can't seem to find much online at all.  The only historical picture I can find is the one in the EDP article.

 

 

[robtheplod]

14 hours ago, David Mack said:

Their 'Where to find us' page even has directions for those arriving by boat!

it is lovely there... shame its on the broads and not canals though!

[Pluto]

Though there were no boats in the gardens, the Whittle Pleasure gardens at the bottom of Johnsons Hillock were a regular destination for boat trips from Wigan at least as far back as the start of the 20th century. The brewery nearby could have been an additional attraction.

[Hastings]

Some distance away, I know, but I lived in Marlow, Bucks, on the Thames till the early 1960s, and there were various small streams running into the river that were navigable for quite some distance, leading to posh houses with boathouses.  In fact, the Abbotsbrook estate in Bourne End even had a skiff lock on it.  See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Repair_work_on_the_smallest_lock_-_Abbotsbrook_Estate_-_geograph.org.uk_-_302159.jpg and https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322976811390 (which incorrectly says Bourne End, Herts instead of Bucks,)

[David Mack]

What about a circular canal?

 53° 2'46.56"N   2°23'43.24"W

[Hudds Lad]

2 hours ago, David Mack said:

What about a circular canal?

 53° 2'46.56"N   2°23'43.24"W

You could really annoy the fishists, like clockwork  

[ditchcrawler]

3 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

You could really annoy the fishists, like clockwork  

You have to get into it first

[pete23]

Some bits are still visible from the road as you drive past.

and a lock if I remember correctly.

[ditchcrawler]

9 hours ago, pete23 said:

Some bits are still visible from the road as you drive past.

and a lock if I remember correctly.

Which one of the three mentioned?

 

[magnetman]

15 hours ago, Hastings said:

Some distance away, I know, but I lived in Marlow, Bucks, on the Thames till the early 1960s, and there were various small streams running into the river that were navigable for quite some distance, leading to posh houses with boathouses.  In fact, the Abbotsbrook estate in Bourne End even had a skiff lock on it.  See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Repair_work_on_the_smallest_lock_-_Abbotsbrook_Estate_-_geograph.org.uk_-_302159.jpg and https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322976811390 (which incorrectly says Bourne End, Herts instead of Bucks,)

 

There are lots of interesting bits on the River. Another one is around taplow where the Jubilee river flood channel starts and also Cliveden deep. Yars ago the area was packed with stately homes and people with a lot of money. The River was a toy to be played with. I think the end of the island above and beside Boulter's weir wss probably a pleasure garden owned by the occupiers of Taplow court. On the other side there is a little cut and no doubt was originally a boathouse and steam launches. 

 

Well you would wouldn't you. 

 

Of course Frank Whittle came along and the big money left for warmer climes. 

 

That's my theory anyway. 

 

I like the old stately homes. Nuneham has a wonderful old palladian mansion. The island there has a stone walkway across just below the water surface. This has the advantage of preventing the plebs from getting into the backwater of course. I moored there a couple of summers ago and had a look round. Remains of a brick folly by the River in the woods. Must have been a pleasant place to be. 

 

Only a load of bricks and one wall left now. Still back in the day it would have been wonderful. Privatise your island backwater with a stone walkway and a couple of strategically fallen trees (bloody beavers!) and it could have been quite private.

Edited January 28, 2023 by magnetman

[pete23]

14 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Which one of the three mentioned?

Oops the Honing one..

 

 

[IanM]

8 hours ago, pete23 said:

Oops the Honing one..

The Islands didn’t have any locks and certainly the last time I looked at them you couldn’t see anything bar a bit of overgrown waterway. The North Walsham and Dilham Canal however does have locks and you can see a few of them from the country lanes. There is a restoration movement too.
 

I was involved in the very early days when it was essentially three of us meeting at weekends and scrub bashing. 
 

https://nwdct.org

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by IanM

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, IanM said:

The Islands didn’t have any locks and certainly the last time I looked at them you couldn’t see anything bar a bit of overgrown waterway. The North Walsham and Dilham Canal however does have locks and you can see a few of them from the country lanes. There is a restoration movement too.
 

I was involved in the very early days when it was essentially three of us meeting at weekends and scrub bashing. 
 

https://nwdct.org

 

If you fancy visiting them they have an electric (sorry about that) trip boat and have just built a small wherry for maintenance work. They got very badly the wrong side of the EA a few years back but that seems to be in the past now.