Defra, the Government department responsible for the parks, also expressed it was content that the Authority would make its own decision on the matter.

[6] In the Middle Ages the local monasteries began to excavate the peatlands as a turbary business, selling fuel to Norwich and Great Yarmouth.

Despite the construction of windpumps and dykes, the flooding continued and resulted in the typical Broads landscape of today, with its reedbeds, grazing marshes and wet woodland.

The new section was a private navigation which was not controlled by the Yarmouth Haven and Pier Commissioners, who had responsibility for the rest of the Broadland rivers.

[8] The next attempt was to extend navigation on the River Bure from Coltishall to Aylsham, which was authorised by an act of Parliament[which?]

Despite the arrival of the railways in 1879, goods continued to be carried to Aylsham by wherries until 1912, when major flooding badly damaged the locks.

Unable to fund repairs, the Commissioners closed the 9-mile (14 km) section above Coltishall, although it was not formally abandoned until 1928.

In 1886 the canal was sold to miller, Edward Press, for £600, but the principal clerk absconded with most of the money and it was never recovered.

[8] In 1814 the merchants of Norwich first suggested a plan to improve the route between Norwich and the North Sea, as the shallowness of Breydon Water created difficulties for trading vessels, and there was organised theft of cargo during its transhipment at Great Yarmouth, for which 18 men were convicted of taking the goods and one of receiving it in 1820.

The initial plan was to dredge a deeper channel along the southern edge of Breydon Water, but the scheme was opposed by the people of Yarmouth.

A more expensive scheme, involving the construction of a new cut to link the River Yare to the River Waveney, together with a channel between Oulton Broad and Lake Lothing, where a sea lock was needed, was also opposed by Yarmouth but formed the basis of a bill presented to Parliament.

4. c. xlii), was passed on 28 May 1827, creating the Norwich and Lowestoft Navigation Company, and the work of construction and dredging of the River Yare and the Oulton Dyke was completed in 1833.

The venture was not a commercial success and, with expenditure exceeding income, the Company was unable to repay its loan.

The Haddiscoe Cut was taken over by the Commissioners in 1842 and sold to the railway developer Sir Samuel Morton Peto.

The range of boats expanded to include powered cruisers in the 1930s, and the Hoseasons agency was founded soon after the Second World War.

For conservation reasons there is a strict speed limit enforced on all vessels, to reduce waves eroding the riverbanks.

The area attracts all kinds of visitors, including ramblers, artists, anglers, and birdwatchers as well as people "messing about in boats".

The Norfolk wherry, the traditional cargo craft of the area, can still be seen on the Broads as some specimens have been preserved and restored.

Ted Ellis, a local naturalist, referred to the Broads as "the breathing space for the cure of souls".

It rises near Martham Broad and flows for about six miles (9.7 km) to Thurne Mouth where it joins the Bure.

Changes in farming practices and sewage disposal in the 1950s and 1960s released high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen into the Broads, causing eutrophication.

The loss of larger plants and reed fringes in eutrophic waters increases erosion of banks and the buildup of sediment on lake floors.

[10] Even with reduced nutrient levels, algae tend to remain dominant, blocking light and preventing plants from growing on the floor of the waterway.

These effects tend to create a stable ecosystem where low growing underwater plants dominate.

[citation needed] Among the rare insects are the Norfolk hawker, a species of dragonfly, and the Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon subsp.

Specific parts of the Broads have been awarded a variety of conservation designations, for instance: A specific project being considered under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan is the re-introduction of the large copper butterfly, whose habitat has been reduced by reduction of fens.