Online resources

Here are some of the many resources that you may find useful.

Geography KS2

• Essential elements of the Geography KS2 Broads Curriculum
• Broads rivers – introduction
• The water cycle
• Threats to Broads rivers
• Climate change and flooding
• Managing the Broads for people and wildlife
• Peat essentials
• What's it like to live in the Broads National Park?

Other resources related to the National Curriculum

• Love your Local Landscape is a project designed to help children at KS1-2 to begin to understand and appreciate their local landscape.
• The Geldeston Lock project, aimed at KS2, is the story of the Broads in miniature, told through the history of one small village.
• For Peat's Sake is a project to enable GCSE and A-level students to understand the very origins of the Broads.

History resources

• Explore our heritage and culture pages to find out about the history of the national parks and to discover some Broads products. Meet some Broads people and listen to historical recordings of some of them.
• East with the Spray - Read the story of a journey from Norwich to Great Yarmouth on a trading wherry in 1901.
• 'Sport', science, food and profit - Read our blog about the relationship between the residents of the Broads countryside and their wildlife from 1800 to 1914.
• A fishy business - Find out about the surprising history of fishing in the Broads and listen to the last Broads eel catcher, in another blog about the history of the Broads.
• Keep going - Enter the medieval world, when you visit Norwich Castle, St Benet's Abbey and a new exhibition about the history of peat, at the Museum of the Broads - details in our blog.
• Life in the reedbeds, with Wally Mason. In this blog you'll get a taste of life as a reed cutter on the remote Haddiscoe Island.
• Land of the windmills - “Where can I see a windmill?” Well there are plenty to choose from! Read our blog to find out where.

Some places to visit to learn about Broads history

• Beccles Museum - discover the town of Beccles and villages in the Waveney valley
• Museum of the Broads - with a new exhibition about the history of peat
• Hardley Mill - now restored, you can also watch a video of Hardley Mill to find out how mills actually worked
• Horsey Mill - now restored, the winding cap and turning sails bring the mill to life
• Norfolk Archaeological Trust - visit their sites at Burgh Castle and St Benet's Abbey
• Broads National Park visitor centres
  Ranworth Broads Information Centre - with a short archive film compilation
  Toad Hole Cottage - visit for a glimpse of life in Victorian times

Some more organisations for Broads history

• East Anglian Film Archive - thousands of films and television programmes dating from 1896 to the present day
• Unlocking our Sound Heritage - a project to digitally preserve endangered sound recordings
• English Heritage - Berney Arms Mill, St Olave's Priory, Caister Roman Fort, Cow Tower in Norwich
• Norfolk Windmills Trust - Broads drainage mills

Games and models for geography and history

These games and models to borrow will help you learn about the geography and history of the Broads.

• Eel game - a board game developed in a partnership between the Broads Authority, Extraordinary Lives and the University of Plymouth. It raises awareness of the eel as a species, its extraordinary journey and illegal eel trafficking.
• Wherry games - two games following sailing wherry journeys around the Broads. Go back in time as a wherryman - who can deliver their cargo first in the trading wherry game? Go back in time for a luxurious cruise - who can be first to see the many attractions in the pleasure wherry game? Each game has two ways to play. The games are for two to four players of age 6+, or you can play in groups.
• Wherry models - two trading wherries, a pleasure wherry and a wherry yacht. The trading wherries are in the style of Albion and Maud. They have removable covers to show the large cargo hold and bunk room. The pleasure wherry in the style of Hathor and the wherry yacht in the style of Norada, two wherries owned by Wherry Yacht Charter, have a removable roof and cabins. Solid block construction and simplified gaff rigged sails make the models durable for demonstrating raising and lowering the mast and sail. The models can be handled by supervised groups.

Contact our Education Officer for more details.

Looking after the Broads

The Broads Authority is the body responsible for managing and looking after the Broads National Park.

Landscapes

• Water, Mills & Marshes was the the Landscape Partnership Scheme for the Broads, comprising 38 different projects across a variety of different areas.
• Broads Nature Podcasts series 1 - Listen to short podcasts where local wildlife experts Nick and John talk about the wonders of the night.
• Watch the video to go back in time to more than 2,000 years ago and see the Broads landscape changing.

• To help bring the landscapes of the Broads alive, we have commissioned a series of five short videos that  provide a fantastic introduction to the unique characteristics of this special landscape.

There are videos on an Introduction to the Broads, Open Water, Fen, Drained Marshes and Settlements.

You can view the first one below and visit our YouTube playlist to watch the other videos.

Conservation

CANAPE was an INTERREG-funded project dedicated to 'Creating a New Approach to Peatland Ecosystems' at Hickling Broad.

Farming

The Broads Authority and Norfolk Rivers Trust co-host the Broadland Catchment Partnership to help coordinate water and land management in the Broadland Catchment.

Tourism

Visit the Broads is the official tourism website for the Broads National Park and features information on the Broads, things to do, events that are going on and places to stay.

The Broads in current fiction for young readers

• Timecruiser by Chris Crowther
• Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick