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Rockland St. Mary
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| Rockland St. Mary lies in the
Yare Valley between
Surlingham and
Claxton. The long village street,
which runs from west to east, finally
drops down a steep hill to the
New Inn and the staithe. The staithe connects the
village to Rockland
Broad.
Rockland Staithe
Rockland Broad from the
Short Dyke
The name Rockland derives from 'rook grove' - a fact which
the nature writer Mark
Cocker found particularly fascinating. Cocker, who lives
in the next village of Claxton and is author of Crow Country,
spent many years observing crows,
rooks and jackdaws in the Yare valley. He was originally
inspired by watching the amazing roost which takes place
just across the river at
Buckenham.
When the guidebook writer W. A. Dutt visited Rockland
in the early years of the
20th Century he found that many of the inhabitants were
still employed in traditional Broadland trades:
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| “Half an hour’s
strolling brought me to Rockland village, an isolated
hamlet with a small staithe at which the wherries moor,
and a narrow channel connecting it with the Broad. With
its swampy osier grounds, yellow reed stacks, and
thatched cottages, it is a typical Broadland hamlet, and
the majority of its few inhabitants are more or less
dependent on the Broad for a livelihood” |
However, like many villages surrounding Norwich,
Rockland is
now largely a commuter village.In one of my long Norfolk dialect
poems entitled
The Waddingham St. Michael Shew the narrator,
Henry Skipper, takes a visiting film crew onto
Rockland Broad to get some location shots. While out, a
wake from a passing cruiser over-turns
one of the rowing boats - depositing the director into
the water. As a result he loses his toupee and a search
ensues:
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They soon start a lookin and that wunt long
Afore the camra bluk thort he'd got it,
But when he get it in, y'see, that tan
Out to be a rabbet wot hed drownded.
Next orf the sound bluk reckoned he'd got it
But when they get it in that wus only
An ole glove wot someone must hev hulled out.
Read more |
Rockland Broad was also home to two of Norfolk's most
colourful characters. The first was Jimmy 'Scientific'
Fuller who made his living around the turn of the
18th/19th Century shooting and collecting
birds. He was even known to shoot ospreys. He worked on the broad for fifty years and
can be seen (below) in his gun punt.
Jimmy 'Scientific' Fuller
c. 1913
The other character was Archie Taylor, who lived in a
thatched cottage on the staithe, cut reeds and hired out
rowing boats. According to fishing legend John Wilson,
Taylor was also a dab-hand at catching specimen roach
using a wet fly.
Rockland Broad is also home to a number of sunken
wherries known rather ominously as 'the Slaughters'. The
thought of these old vessels and the Broad's
reputation as a top pike fishing venue - inspired the
following haiku of mine:
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In the staithe, flatfish
And ruffe. Among the bones of
The old wherries - pike. |
Links:
More photographs of Rockland |
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Supported
by Norfolk Tourism