The main river of the southern Broads, running fifty miles from beyond Norwich to the sea at Great Yarmouth
The Yare is the principal river of the southern Broads. It rises west of Norwich and runs about 50 miles east across Norfolk to reach the sea at Great Yarmouth, where it meets the Bure and the Waveney at Breydon Water. Norwich, at the head of navigation, is reached from the sea by the Yare and, through the city, the lower Wensum.
Below Norwich the river is broad and deep, the main highway of the southern Broads. It passes the yachting reach at Brundall, then the sugar-beet works at Cantley, the railway swing bridge and quay at Reedham, and the isolated marsh settlement of Berney Arms with its tall windmill, before opening into Breydon Water, a tidal lake almost four miles long and rich in wading birds. Several broads, among them Rockland and Surlingham, open off it along the way.
It is a tidal, working river as much as a leisure one. Norwich was a major inland port, and cargo once came up the Yare from Yarmouth by wherry, trans-shipped into shallower craft to cross Breydon. Today it carries cruisers and yachts, with Breydon Water the one stretch where the tides and open water call for real care. The Wherryman’s Way follows the south bank on foot between Norwich and Yarmouth.
