Follow the map of England around until you arrive at the great big bit that bulges out just south of Yorkshire (or just north of the Thames Estuary, if the visitor is approaching from the South).




Bulging out from the map as if England were a nine-months pregnant woman and this was the imminent offspring, this is East Anglia.

There has always been some debate as to which English counties constitute East Anglia. Norfolk is certainly a constituent part of the whole, as is its southern neighbour and local rival, Suffolk. Cambridgeshire, as the county bordering on both in the West, is also commonly accepted as East Anglian.

While the county of Essex is unquestionably geographically a part of East Anglia, a case could be expressed for this county being so close to London that it is fast losing any independent identity of its own.
This humble researcher's past associations with Essex date from the late seventies, early eighties and his University years. Although his personal origins are from the North and North Wales, Army service meant getting to know something of Colchester and its environs, and this was followed up, at uni, by an association with an Essex girl (from Maldon). The general impression was of a county that was fast losing its regional distinction, and where the big towns, ie Basildon, Chelmsford, Brentford, et c, were becoming nothing more than detached districts of London, possibly because of the influx of Londoners moving there. The real East Anglian Essex is still there - around Colchester, the Suffolk borders, probably in the small villages and the countryside, and most certainly along the coast around Maldon up to Harwich. But the incursion of the Beast that is Greater London bodes ill, especially with the current Government looking to create more housing and new towns in the area to serve the London economy. How long will it be before "Essex" becomes a ghost of a county, like "Middlesex" before it?

Several other counties have climed East Anglian status, or had it claimed for them. Lincolnshire, for instance: is this in East Anglia or in the East Midlands? This county is ambiguously perched on the edges of both. And inland counties such as Huntingdonshire or Bedfordshire would seem to have only the most tenuous claim to East Anglian status: a glance at the map suggests they are way too far west to be inside the Bulge. Whatever a geographer might call the bit of England immediately north of London, south of the Midlands and west of East Anglia - this is where Hunts and Beds belong, but not, alas, in East Anglia. Also, parts of Bedfordshire might have the same problem as parts of Essex: is Luton, for instance, too near to, and too overshadowed by, the Greater London conurbation for inclusion in East Anglia?

For East Anglia is not just a distinct geographical region - it's a state of mind, which is often contrary to that held by the rest of the English people. Even an abstract thing like the Greenwich Meridian illustrates this quality of the East Anglian mind. The Meridian cannot be seen, cannot be felt, it isn't visible except on a map: but this is the draughtsman's line that divides the world itself into two halves, into a West and an East. This line runs due North through England from London, in such a way that most of England will plot its geographical postcode as so many degrees or minutes West.

Now consider the far smaller part of Britain which will be so many minutes and degrees East of Greenwich.

It can be argued that this is a VERY psychologically significant point. Being in the East makes for a seperateness of mind: combine this with the historical isolation of East Anglia and you get a people who are indefinably, but very distinctly, different.

To all intents and purposes, the border between the two Englands is at Peterborough¹. When the traveller change trains or National Express coaches here, a different vibe tunes in. The England you knew is behind you, on the other side of the Greenwich Meridian. Another England lies in front of you, waiting to be discovered: this is a place which almost lies in a different time zone and in a present which feels up to fifty years behind the rest of the country² This comment is not meant to be derogatory: East Anglian time is slower, less hurried, less stressful, and just plain different.

Travelling out of Peterborough towards Norfolk, the feeling of being in another country and in another time and place gets REALLY strong at Ely, a timeless town that doesn't look nearly big enough to support that massive cathedral. Go with this: the sensation of "timeslip" is a pleasant part of the visit and necessary if the visitor is to adjust to living here!

And why should East Anglian people rush? After all, this was the first part of Britain to be settled by the people who later became English. "we were here before you, boi, and we be here long after you"