River Waveney

The River Waveney marks the border between Suffolk and Norfolk for most of its course through The Broads. It begins in Redgrave and Lopham Fens, a 432-acre National Nature Reserve fed by springs. The river starts as a small ditch beside the B1113 road and grows steadily eastward through Diss, Bungay and Beccles. Navigation on the Waveney was improved in 1670 by a private Act which built locks at Geldeston, Ellingham and Wainford. The river once carried barges as far as Beccles and supported wherries up to 70 by 16 feet. Steam wherries also worked these waters in the past. Daniel Defoe noted the river’s deep channel and surprising turn away from the sea near Great Yarmouth. Beyond Beccles the river widens into the Broads, passing Barnby Broad and Marshes SSSI. At Somerleyton, Oulton Dyke branches off toward Lowestoft while the railway crosses on a swing bridge. The Haddiscoe Cut, dug in the 19th century, links the Waveney to the Yare for a route to Norwich. Finally the river joins Breydon Water before reaching the North Sea at Great Yarmouth.