A Broad

As a child I lived in Surrey, about 20 miles south of London. Each year we went for our annual holiday – to a nearby seaside resort in Kent or Sussex. Some people went ‘abroad’, overseas, usually across the channel. We didn’t.

Abroad originally meant widely apart – a broad distance from each other.

Then we went a bit further. Coming to East Anglia ‘a broad’ had a different meaning. Now, many years later, we live in Lowestoft close to ‘The Norfolk Broads’ (although our local Oulton Broad is in Suffolk.)

In 12th Century East Anglia, peat was dug from the ground to provide fuel. These massive holes gradually began to fill with water, creating ‘The Broads’.

Over 200 km of navigable Broads and rivers were created, providing essential channels for communication and commerce throughout the 16th Century –when Norwich was the second largest city in England and Great Yarmouth was an important port.

In the mid-1800s the railway brought more visitors to the region, and the Norfolk Broads developed as a popular tourist destination. Now many ramblers, artists, anglers, and birdwatchers, as well as people “messing about in boats”, visit each year.

When I started watching old American films men often referred to a woman as ‘a broad’…

My online dictionary defines ‘a broad’: The slang sense of “woman” is by 1911, perhaps suggestive of broad hips, but it also might trace to American English abroadwife, word for a woman (often a slave) away from her husband. Earliest use of the slang word suggests immorality or coarse, low-class women.

This gives a very different meaning to ‘A Norfolk Broad’!

At Sunday School I learnt that God’s love is ‘shed abroad’ in our hearts. Modern Bibles say that it’s ‘poured out in our hearts’…

…I learnt about God’s love, that’s high, deep, long – and broad. Such a broad love can reach all – whether we’re ‘abroad’… ramblers, artists, anglers or birdwatchers… have a ‘coarse low-class’ reputation… or seeking to navigate life’s broads and waterways.