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Norfolk is the best county in England

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I was born there.

It is very large

Hosts Norwich City FC.

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  5. I will no-doubt be shot down in flames for this…but apart from Yorkshire and Cornwall I don’t think there’s widespread or significant “county pride” in England. I was brought up in Surrey and this led to a very vague alliance to the cricket club, but that’s about it.

  6. Funny how two of the people replying have names reflecting the County that they come from or a place in the county they come from.
    Never really spent enough time in Norfolk to comment much about it but I hope my football team take 3 points from Norwich at the weekend.

  7. Love it. Titchwell RSPB, gorgeous beaches, Wherries ales, top fish, Burnham Market …. But do note an emerging suggestion of Reformist tendencies, and Andrew Mountbatten sulking in the vicinity….

  8. Whatever the intent of the OP I don’t think pride in where you came from or where you are is a British trait. More likely to mock it, hence Crap Towns etc.

    Here in Spain though, from Valladolid to Valencia and from Oviedo to Orozco you’ll be told that it’s the best place to live bar none. To be fair there often hasn’t been that much experience of other places for comparison.

    But the obsession with the ‘Pueblo’ – where you were born maybe, or the true rural roots of your family – is something else. While you’re unlikely to live there any more (no jobs) the memories of ildyllic childhood summer holidays spent there are sepia printed for eternity and thus repeated every summer on your kids and grandkids with a month in the family home (not worth selling or impossible to sell so still in the family), briefly bringing the dying village back to life.

    As someone who was born in Islamabad, and then lived in a further three countries and two boarding schools before adopting my pueblo around the age of 18, a place where I’ve spent maybe 1/10th of my life, I find the Spanish model quite appealing. I’ve come to find my partner’s fairly nondescript village around 50km from Madrid and the home she was born in in 1967 and now owns outright pretty much my favourite place (as she does). It will never be the ‘best’ at anything though, it’s just home.

    • There is a mixture of local pride and disdain whereby locals can slag off their town, but woe betide anyone else who dares do it. At the same time they will take some perfectly ordinary attribute, let’s say common sense or a sense of humour, and declare that it is particular to their area and no other.

    • “Here in Spain though, from Valladolid to Valencia and from Oviedo to Orozco you’ll be told that it’s the best place to live bar none. To be fair there often hasn’t been that much experience of other places for comparison.”

      Exactly the same in Italy, Guiri. I will never understand why such boastful pride doesn’t manifest itself in any noticable civic pride with regard to intolerance of litter.

  9. I was raised in the far north end of Surrey, the bit just north of the Thames, which residents and County Councillors in the more leafy and much more affluent bits like Reigate and Godalming always tend to either forget about completely or go “oh gosh yes…better build the waste burner up that end and call it an Eco Park in the vain hope of pulling the wool over the plebs eyes.” Which partly explains why many of us up this end would much rather be absorbed into one of the neighboring London Boroughs, where our very different needs and requirements would be far better met. We are prone to going on at some length about why we are technically “Middlesex” but I’ll spare you all that.

  10. I’m in that triangular between the A1, A14 and A428. Are we in Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire or Huntingdonshire? My address, postcode and phone number suggest all three.

    The bins are emptied by SCDC, so I’m going with that.

    • So we’ve moved on to Buroughs now?

      “Huntingdonshire is a local government district in Cambridgeshire, England.” That really helps, cheers.

      Southend, having its own unitary council, is not a part of Essex County council. I’m going to call it Southendshire from now on.

      • But it will be part of Essex following devolution next year, though the mayor won’t be elected until the same time as Local Government Reorganisation happens in 2028, at which point the 12 current Essex County Council areas and the two unitaries (Southend and Thurrock) will become 3, or maybe 5, just possibly 4, new unitary authorities. It’s all going very well, isn’t it?

            • Is Greater Essex actually just Essex?

              My great uncle (I think – married to my grandfather’s half-sister) was Mayor of Southend. He oversaw the destruction of the beautiful Victoria and Talza arcades in the town centre, to be replaced with the hideous brutalist concrete shopping centre. Never forgave him.

              • I doubt anyone would deny that Southend is in Essex but as a unitary authority it is only part of greater, or ceremonial, Essex. It does not fall under the aegis of Essex County Council but will return to the fold under devolution (if everything proceeds, which isn’t exactly nailed no with the current government). Under the different proposals it will form part of a new unitary authority with Rochford and Castle Point if there are 5 unitaries, Rochford, Castle Point, Basildon and Thurrock if there are 3 (which I think is most likely), or Castle Point, Basildon and Thurrock if there are 4 (which only Rochford proposes. I wonder what they have against being partnered with Southend?).

                I’ve heard that people in Romford and Ilford often claim to be in Essex, despite being part of Greater London for 60 years. Oddly enough I’ve never heard anyone in actual Essex, where I have lived for almost 30 of those years, claim Romford and Ilford as our own.

      • I salute from the window of the back bedroom every time you pass by, Fred, even though I’m a long way from the A47.

        If I went to work in the actual office (3rd floor of 4, which overlooks the A14 where the services used to be), and you took the A14, I could actually wave.

        • I’m crazy me. Sometimes I go down the A1 , turn off at Newark and trundle along the (soul destroying…Fraü Freddy’s words) A17 and onto the aforementioned A47. Other times it’s the M6 and then the East Coast Super Freeway. Fittingly, it’s a bit dull but I will keep an eye out for you next time I’m heading that way.

  12. The “proud grimesthorpe” ( or wherever) thing rather loses me. It’s arbitrary where you are born, and we all like familiarity. I was raised on the mean streets of Hove, in the Aldrington/ Portland Road ‘ends’, but try not to view anyone from outside this a “soft southerner”.

  13. I’ve been to Norfolk. Very nice it is too. But if there is to be a competition for best county (and there probably shouldn’t) then it’s not going to win.

    Cornwall, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Devon and Somerset all have particularly stunning countryside.

    Kent, Hampshire, Surrey and Hertfordshire offer beautiful countryside and proximity to that London.

    Berkshire is royally appointed don’tcha know?

    I suspect the best county in England is either the one you were born in, the one you have moved to or the one you have booked your holiday in. It’s as subjective as the best sandwich (a reuben on rye btw).

  16. I’m in Devon and there’s a reasonable amount of county pride here. We have our own flag (not the limp, damp, Chinese-made union jacks hung up on lamposts by the proto-fascists). And the countryside is gorgeous.
    When I was a kid living in London we used to go down to Seaford in Sussex for our summer holidays and there was a distinct Sussex identity, accent etc. Nothing like that now. Everyone speaks with the same London/South East accent and the clothes, cinema etc are no longer endearingly a year behind the times. I guess the same is true of all the counties close of London and maybe the same homogenisation applies to counties close to other urban centres like Birmingham and Manchester.

    • Yeah, when I went to university in Reading in the late ’80s, the local pensioners on the bus sounded like the Wurzels. Nowadays it is just a commuter town in London’s orbit, as is Cambridge (to a degree).

      • Nearly 40 years ago you could find what most people would think of as East Anglian accents just outside of Bedford. I rarely hear any in Cambridge, even though I work in a shop with premdominantly working class ( or modern equivlent) customers, When I do they are usually on a day trip from Downham Market or some such.

      • As a transplant to the West Mids since 1981, working in Brum and living in Shirley until about 20 years ago, moving up to lovely Lich where I remain, I can concur. I was always bemused by the array of accents in the Archers, given the nominal closeness to B’ham. Oi’ve never ‘erd folk speak loike Eddie Grundy.
        Me, I speak more like a cross between Nigel Pargetter and Nelson Gabriel did.

    • Listen to the Copper Family for your authentic Sussex accent.

      My father’s side of the family came from around Grays/Stamford-le-Hope/Fobbing/Corringham. When I was a kid I had a lot of relatives round there (my grandmother was one of 18 children) and they had a very clearly defined Essex accent. I’ve tried to find an example on YT, but it’s all TOWIE shit now.

  18. Lived in Norfolk for nigh on thirty years. Whilst no denying its beauty (especially the north coast) and Norwich has a good shout for “Best UK City To Live”, there are indeed many folks one can only describe as “rum”. When I first lived there the only person of colour you saw attended UEA, the BNP had its biggest membership outside London and if you stuck a blue rosette on a pig it would still get voted in as MP.
    Don’t get me Wrong, it’s a great county (possibly not the best, whatever ‘best’ means) and there’s a fair chance I’ll end my days there (we’re saving up for a small flat in Burnham Market, only another million squid to go) but it’s not all big skies and Brancaster oysters….

  21. We’re going to Stiffkey in May. Hopefully, the Red Lion pub is as good as on previous visits.

    Several walks planned, using the bus to drop us off. I expect we’ll go to Holt, Wells-next-the-Sea, Holkham, the Burnhams and the ‘Langham Dome’.

    Not forgetting the pottery, smokery, secondhand bookshop and the best corner shop in the world at Cley.

    • I was in the George & Dragon pub in Cley some years ago and someone asked the barman for directions to Stiffkey, which prompted an outpouring of double entendres worthy of Sid James at his finest. “Stiffkey eh? Stiff – key, know what I mean, eh, eh, eh? Stiff, eh? Stiff…..ha! ha! ha!” How we all laughed.

      Other than that, Cley does indeed have the world’s best corner shop, where pork pies go to die.

      • 30 years ago, my Future Best Man was driving up from Camberley to join me for a weekend in Edale. He got lost somewhere in the Peaks and pulled into a pub to ask for directions.

        “I’m trying to get to Edale. I have to go through Hope.”

        “There’s no hope round ‘ere, boy.”

        FBM bought him a pint.

        • John Hadfield’s novel ‘Love on a Branch Line’ set in Suffolk has an Earl obsessed with fallen women, and the annual fete for their benefit. I wonder whether Hadfield was inspired by him?

          Having an interest in aviation and military history, I ‘knew’ Stiffkey from the Stiffkey Sight, which was developed at the gunnery school there, and was added to certain anti-aircraft guns to cope with fast low-flying targets. The little museum at Langham – on the former airfield – is housed within one of the very few surviving gunnery training domes, and is well worth a visit.

  22. Norfolk ‘n chance.
    I lived in Norwich, and Surrey, and Hampshire, and Leics, and Cambridgeshire, and Yorkshire.

    Out of all of them, I miss Hampshire the most. Nice driving, nice countryside, and it has Winchester.

  24. I was born just into Devon, but my family comes from over the river, so temperamentally I’m with Mebyon Kernow.

    Having said that, since Covid we go to a pal’s cottage in Suffolk most years for our summer break, and very nice it is there too. I’m afraid that Norfolk has yet to tempt us north any distance.

  25. I have made a couple of visits to Norfolk over the past few years.
    My impressions? well, the bits I went to were flat, featureless, and generally felt like going back in time 20 years.
    Maybe I just didn’t go to the right area, but I found it uninspiring.
    Must give it another go …

    • The north coast has some crinkly bits. Around Stiffkey, it reminds me of Wiltshire; chalk underneath, soft valleys. The saltmarsh between there and Wells is lovely, and the beaches between there and Burnham Overy Staithe epic. I live in rural Somerset on one of the very flat bits, and I wouldn’t like to judge whose skies are biggest; ours or North Norfolk’s.

  26. I live in Wymondham, which is perched on the edge of Norwich, and for an Afterworder there is no better place like it.
    Norwich has Burning Shed, Circular Sounds, Soundclash, Out Of Time, Press To Play, Beatniks, Venus Vinyl, Plastic Dreams and an HMV.
    As others have mentioned the glorious Norfolk coastline is less than an hour away, so basically that’s it, my moving days are over.

  27. It’s time for me to point out that I’m a Yorkshireman who has lived in Norfolk for the past 23 years, I love it and would never dream of moving back oop north. I live very close to Stiffkey and apparently it’s pronounced “Stooky” but despite being assured that is the case I’ve never actually heard anyone call it that. Farrow & Ball have a paint colour called Stiffkey Blue named after the colour of both the mud and cockles found on the shore there.

    • Been there many, many times. As a newcomer I’d been told many, many times by non-villagers it was Stooky. Not a lot of true locals left these days but any time I asked one of them to pronounce the name they said Stiffkey.

  30. 120 posts before mine and still no Suffolk AWer has taken the bait.
    I lived in Suffolk for a long time but I liked Norwich despite my first visit back in 99 confirming my suspicions:
    We suggested picking someone up from Norwich station to save a transfer as it was a long cross country journey already, not realising that the 60 mile journey would end up taking 2 1/2 hours (pre satnav and the journey was in the dark). Anyway I was dying for the loo, they’ve been done up since but the toilets were gross, big room with a long row of urinals and a floor that was soaking wet and had various puddles to navigate.
    I’m the only person in there, mid wee, and this bloke comes in, chooses the urinal next to me and says “mind me sandwiches”. When I finished, I looked around and right behind my feet on the soaking wet floor was a brown paper bag.
    It was a while before I went back.

  31. I’ve been to Norfolk only once. To the beating heart of Norfolk Police HQ for work reasons. So it was an early train and a day in a meeting room on-site. I could have been anywhere else in the country. Though I wasn’t offended by the view from the train there and back.

    I’ve been posting here for years and regularly pipe up with where I’m from. Which doesn’t oblige anyone to have read or remembered. Northumberland for me. Just. If you’ve flown into Newcastle Airport and driven out, turn left and you end up in the Toon, turn right and you immediately see the ‘Welcome to Northumberland’ sign, Continue down that road for a few minutes and you’ll be driving through The Place Of My Birth and First Twenty Three Years Of My Life.

    After a series of ridiculous Terry Fuckwitt-level work and life decisions I’m now resident in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

  33. Do counties properly exist any more? Aren’t they now just defined areas for local political governance? When I was growing up Liverpool and Manchester were both in Lancashire. Now they are both kind of their own counties, Merseyside and Greater Manchester. But Lancashire cricket team plays most of their matches in Manchester, they used to play the odd one in Liverpool too, maybe they still do. Do they play any in Lancaster?

    • I lived in Lancaster for several years and was only dimly aware of there being a cricket club. I’ve just checked and it’s there but rather out of the way, towards The Marsh if you know the town.

      • I know it reasonably well. I used to go to Lancaster every summer when I was a kid. Never saw a cricket match there but we were actually in Torrisholme most of the time

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