The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network.

The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the village of Shipdham. Above its confluence with a tributary stream from Garvestone it is known as the Blackwater River. From there it flows in a generally eastward direction passing Barnham Broom and is joined by the River Tiffey before reaching Bawburgh. It then skirts the southern fringes of the city of Norwich, passing through Colney, Cringleford, , and Trowse. At Whitlingham it is joined by the River Wensum and although the Wensum is the larger and longer of the two, the river downstream of their confluence continues to be called the Yare. Flowing eastward into The Broads it passes the villages of Bramerton, Surlingham, Rockland St. Mary and Cantley. Just before Reedham at Hardley Cross (erected in 1676) it is joined by the River Chet. The cross marks the ancient boundary between the City of Norwich and Borough of Great Yarmouth. Beyond Reedham the river passes the famously isolated marshland settlement of Berney Arms before entering the tidal lake of Breydon Water. Here the Yare is joined by the Rivers Waveney and Bure and finally enters the North Sea at Gorleston, Great Yarmouth.

The Yare is the frequent subject of landscape paintings by members of the early 19th century Norwich School of artists. The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. contains an oil painting by John Crome entitled Moonlight on the Yare. Joseph Stannard depicted the river in Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon (1824) and Boats on the Yare near Bramerton (1828) which is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The river is navigable to small coastal vessels from Norwich to the sea, and in former times carried significant commercial traffic to that city. At Reedham the river is joined by the Haddiscoe Cut, a canal which provides a direct navigable link to the River Waveney at Haddiscoe avoiding Breydon Water.

The river provides a navigable link between Norwich and the North Sea, but silting has been a long-standing problem. In 1698, an Act of Parliament was obtained which allowed duty to be collected for any coal traffic using the river. The money raised was to pay for improvements to the course of the river and to the harbour at Great Yarmouth, but the majority of it went towards harbour improvements, and little improvement of the river occurred. Three more acts attempted to rectify the situation, but the river continued to be neglected. A fifth act, obtained in 1772, sought to address the problem in a different way, and specified how the tolls were to be used. 15 per cent was to be given to Norwich for river improvements between the city and Hardley Cross, 25 per cent was given to Yarmouth for improvements to the lower river between Hardley Cross and the town, with a further 40 per cent set aside for maintenance of Yarmouth harbour. Other rivers benefitted from the remaining 20 per cent.

The size of vessels that could reach Norwich was limited by the shallow channel crossing Breydon Water, and so all goods arriving from the North Sea had to be trans-shipped to smaller vessels at Yarmouth. In order to improve the situation the merchants of Norwich asked William Cubitt to look for a solution in 1814. His proposal consisted of dredging a new channel to the south side of Breydon Water and making various improvements to the river. This was costed at £35,000, but the plan was opposed by Yarmouth Corporation when it was made public in 1818. John Rennie, acting for the corporation, concluded that the plan might result in silting of the harbour, and so Cubitt proposed an alternative, which would link the Yare to Lowestoft. This was also opposed by Yarmouth Corporation, but despite the cost being more than double, and assurances from Thomas Telford and James Walker that improved navigation to Norwich would not harm Yarmouth, this was the plan that was laid before Parliament in 1826. The City of Norwich attempted to buy the navigation in 1848, but were again opposed by Yarmouth, and withdrew their bill from Parliament. Silting of Lake Lothing became a problem, and traffic gradually reverted to using the route through Yarmouth. A grandiose plan to build a ship canal between Yarmouth and Norwich with a commercial dock at Whitlingham and a naval base at Rockland Broad, proposed in 1908, came to nothing, but steam tugs continued to haul barges of coal to Norwich until the 1960s. Commercial traffic has now been replaced by leisure boating. Ptolemy records a Latinized version of this name as Gariennos around 150 AD. Eilert Ekwall gives another derivation, that the river name is a back-formation from Yarmouth.

Wherryman's Way

Opened in 2005, the 35 mile long Wherryman's Way follows the route of the historic Broads trading wherries between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. It winds through existing footpaths, open marshes, reedbeds, grazing meadows and riverside villages along the banks of the River Yare. The path passes numerous information panels, sculptures and audio posts which seek to bring to life the characters and history of the route.

  • River Yare Literary Links

References