About

The author

Born in the heart of the industrial Midlands, the desire to escape to the countryside took hold when I was a youngster. My uncle introduced me to the waterways during a fishing trip to the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. I had little interest in fishing but I enjoyed helping the boaters take their narrowboats through the locks. My first holiday on a boat was on the River Thames in 1978. Later that year my family and I hired on the Broads. That was nearly forty years ago and I’ve been coming back to the Broads on a regular basis ever since.

A brief history of BroadsNet

1997

Pete’s Norfolk and Suffolk Broads website built using Claris Home Page went live on 10th November 1997. It was one of the first Broads cruising guides to appear online.

2002

On 15th February 2000 I registered the domain name broadsnet.co.uk. The original website continued until March 2002. It was completely redesigned using NetObjects Fusion. The design of the website included frames, which at the time were considered the bee’s knees! Visitor numbers increased and I was pleased with the positive comments received from visitors who took the time to comment in the guest book.

2005

Websites using frames fell out of favour consequently BroadsNet underwent another design change in 2005 to remove the frames.

2011

In 2011 I set about completely updating BroadsNet using a commercial template for use with Serif WebPlus. This was to be a big update, not only was the design changed but the whole website was completely rewritten with new features added. It took a couple of months to complete but I was happy with the result. Within a few months I realised the use of the Serif software was not a good idea as the website was not responsive and didn’t look good on mobile and tablet devices. I knew at some point I would either have to produce a site for mobiles and tablets or completely redesign the site again!

2016

I updated my other websites to responsive designs during 2015 using the WordPress platform (see below). In late 2015 I started working on the update for BroadsNet, again using WordPress. The updated design went live in the summer of 2016. As with all guides like this it is a challenge to keep the information up to date. The main issue is with pubs and inns which seem to open and close on a regular basis. Now I have updated the design I will set to work checking the information presented is correct. Old photographs will be replaced with new ones, the work is never ending. 🙂

Pete

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