THE EAST COUNTRY

Find London on a map of England, and you'll notice the coast north of it loops steadily around anticlockwise to end at a largish bay. That's the Wash Estuary. Until the area around it was drained a few centuries back, it extended much further inland and this marshy barrier meant that a whole Anglo-Saxon kingdom was able to grow up virtually unmolested by its neighbours behind it. That kingdom was East Anglia.

--------------------------------- ---------------------------------

Historians often ask two questions; why East Anglia and no West Anglia, and whatever happened to Norsex (land of the north Saxons) to go with Middlesex, Sussex, Wessex and Essex (you work those ones out). Historically this area was one of the earlier ones to be settled by the Saxons, but around the year 500 there was a marked increase in British resistance (possibly led by a mercenary later known as King Arthur), and the prospective 'Norsex' never materialized. From the sixth century onwards it was the Saxons' neighbours in middle Europe, the Angles, who dominated settlement in England - hence the name Angleland and eventually England! Thus whilst the southern half of the East Country became the kingdom of Essex, the northern half was predominately Anglian, and East Anglia developed around two areas, known as the Northern Folk (Norfolk) and the Southern Folk (Suffolk). The area to the west (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Isle of Ely, Huntingdonshire) was for a short time part of a Middle Anglia, but this along with any chance of West Anglia was crushed by the rise of the powerful midlands kingdom of Mercia. The East Country (my own phrase) is split into four areas:

Essex

Essex is part of the northern home counties, the area around Greater London. In 1974 the heavily urbanized south-western bit of the county was transferred to Greater London, but the people there still see themselves as East Saxons. London has made its mark on this commuter county more than most, but there are still wilder parts on the coast which somehow Time seems to have missed. A particular favourite of mine is the Dengie Hundred, the wild area around Bradwell-on-Sea and Southminster.

Norfolk and Suffolk

Further north, East Anglia 'proper' is a pleasant mix of delightful villages and small towns. The land varies between flat, very flat, extremely flat and 'saints preserve us, that's nearly a mild slope!'. The area has also been strongly influenced by the nearby Low Countries (Belgium & Holland), and the people are reserved but friendly enough once they have established you as loud but harmless. The area was, during the Cold War, home to a number of USAF bases, but is rarely visited by American tourists nowadays. Norfolk is famous for the Broads - no, not that type of broad! These are a range of marshlands and waterways.

West Anglia

This term is occasionally used for the counties around the university town of Cambridge, which, like East Anglia, are flat. Very flat. The Isle of Ely was the holdout for resistance fighter Hereward the Wake after the Norman Invasion in 1066, and the people of this area still view the rest of the country with, if not suspicion, then suspicion's first cousin. Roads here often run right beside huge dykes that drain the land. The locals don't seem to have invented the roadside fence as yet.

Lincolnshire

A large county, stretching from industrial Humberside in the north to the Wash in the south. This is settled and rather more prosperous land, once again a former home to USAF bases. American tourists are an infrequent site, but the people are welcoming in their own, quiet way. In these two areas the main attractions lie in the smaller towns, such as Ely, Skegness and Boston (yes, the one after which the Massachusetts port was named).