East Anglia

East Anglia, a region of eastern England, characterised by its flatness, largely consists of fenland and reclaimed marshland. It includes the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of south Lincolnshire bordering The Wash.

Arable farming and horticulture have proven very successful in this fertile country. The landscape has been heavily influenced by Dutch technology, from the influx of clay pantiles to the draining of the fens. It has a wide range of small-scale holiday destinations ranging from traditional coastal resorts, through historic towns such as Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge and Ely to the modern holiday villas of Center Parcs (plaza destroyed by fire on April 4 2002, completely refurbished and re-opened to the public on July 11 2003) set in Thetford Forest. The military constructed many airfields were built in this region during World War II and a few of these remain in use. One, near Norwich, has become a civilian airfield to serve the city.

The Norfolk Broads, now part of The Broads National Park, form a network of waterways between Norwich and the coast and are popular for recreational boating.

The University of East Anglia lies a few miles west of Norwich.

History

The Kingdom of the East Angles formed about the year 520 by the merging of the North and the South Folk. On November 20 870 the Danes killed King Edmund and took the Kingdom, which they named East Anglia. The Saxons retook the area in 920.

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Kings of East Anglia