Eastern England – A Region of Beauty and Variety – Constable Country

EASTERN ENGLAND INTRODUCTION
Eastern England has great variety… from the brashness of Skegness and Southend to the sublimity of Constable Country and the Norfolk Broads; from the haunting, never ending tidal flats of the Wash and Essex Marshes to the wide panoramas of the Lincolnshire scarp and East Anglian Heights; from the great centre of learning at Cambridge to the ignorance of so many who think that Eastern England has little or nothing to offer! Geologically this is England’s newest landscape – large tracts being less than two million years old – yet in terms of the human history of the British Isles it is as old as can be. Because it is geologically young it is often flat and seemingly uninteresting, but scratch the surface almost anywhere and there is a diversity of richness to rate alongside anywhere in England. The region of Eastern England is comprised of the five counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex excluding that part of Essex which melts into the London Basin.

HISTORY & HERITAGE
There is evidence of man in Eastern England from the dawn of history. Isolated farming settlements of the Early Neolithic post-date evidence of earlier hunter gatherers. The famous flint mine of Grimes Graves in Norfolk, shows established ‘industry’ was here very early on. Long barrows from the time of Stonehenge litter the Wolds of Lincolnshire and by the time of the Romans there were great tribes who were so well-ordered that they were able to rout the mighty Romans at their capital of Colchester – which itself claims to be the oldest town in England. Wave after wave of invading cultures have left their mark on the land . Everywhere one looks there is something to find of historical importance. It is not all of the grand scale of Lincoln, Ely, or Norwich Cathedrals , it is often a tiny object like the Saxon Chapel on the Roman wall at Bradwell-on-Sea. Neither is history only in the buildings. Look at the Norfolk Broads and imagine them as peat digging for that is what they are or look at the great fields of tulips and imagine boats sailing there as this is land reclaimed from the sea.

CUSTOMS & LEISURE
Constable and Gainsborough were two of England’s greatest landscape painters who were both born in the region and gained their inspiration from it. Two ‘religions’ had their beginnings here with the births of Robert Browne at Stamford and John Wesley at Epworth. Three of England’s finest cathedrals are at Lincoln, Norwich and Ely, which by virtue of its cathedral is one of the smallest cities in Britain. Even parish churches run big in the area with St. Botolph’s and its famous ‘stump’, England’s biggest. An area that boasts the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton, Alfred Tennyson and more recently the economist John Keynes has to be steeped in learning and the University of Cambridge is one of the finest in the world. Music is well represented and Benjamin Britten – a native of Suffolk – based his opera ‘Peter Grimes’ on the work of the poet George Crabbe, also of Suffolk. Feminine Rights are another cultural theme with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson leading the way as the first woman to qualify in medicine and to become the first woman mayor in Britain. Margaret Thatcher, England’s first woman Prime Minister, was born in Grantham.

LANDSCAPES & LANDFORMS
The long spine of the Jurassic limestone escarpment runs right through the west of the region offering stupendous views, whilst the later chalk of the Cretaceous forms the East Anglian Heights and the Lincolnshire Wolds. Coastal erosion has left a fossil forest north of Skegness, whilst deposition has formed huge spits and bars around the Norfolk Coast and elsewhere. The north Norfolk Coasts displays deposits left behind after the last Ice Age and quite spectacular they are. The Norfolk Broads might appear to be natural but, infact, are mediaeval peat diggings! The ‘Naze’ at Walton-on-the-Naze provides a magnificent view over the Harwich and Felixstowe area – but hurry it is fast disappearing. Actually an awful lot of the coastline is disappearing and the resultant landslips of Norfolk are often spectacular.

PLACES TO VISIT & EVENTS
Many of the more obvious places to visit have already been mentioned. However there are still a great many things to see and do . Cambridge is an obvious starting point. Some of the colleges back on to the river and the scenes of students punting on the Cam are as evocative of England as is possible. The magnificent Burghley House and the Horse Trials near Stamford contrast nicely with the palatial air of Sandringham . Blickling Hall is a classic of Jacobean architecture. Kings Lynn was a busy mediaeval port and retains much of this heritage. The Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham has been a centre of pilgrimage since mediaeval times and continues to be so. Lavenham is one of the best ‘preserved’ villages in East Anglia and has hardly change since it was a busy centre for the wool trade in the 14th and 15th centuries. Sutton Hoo is the site of one of the finest Saxon ship burials ever unearthed (treasures in the British Museum)…..and so on, ad infinitum.

SPORTS & LEISURE
Newmarket has been a centre of horse racing since James I and four of the ‘classics’ are held here. The National Stud and National Horse Racing Museum are also here. The Broads provide marvellous opportunities for cruising, sailing and fishing which is also popular all over the area with the ‘drains’ of the Fens having particular renown. First class cricket can be found in Essex but is strangely missing elsewhere. Although windsurfing and yachting can be found at the larger resorts, only Burnham-on-Crouch has an international reputation for sailing activity. All the seaside resorts offer good facilities for such as bowls, tennis and swimming and most of the major towns have full leisure facilities. Painting in Constable Country is available to all, North Norfolk has an immense reputation among bird-watchers and gliding is offered at many of Lincolnshire’s old aerodromes.