(Area: 820 square miles)
Cambridgeshire is a flat county, inland but with tidal rivers deep inland. The Gogmagog Hills are the highest features in the county (reaching about 420 feet at one point) but beneath them the Cambridgeshire landscape is generally low-lying, much of it drained fens (and still called fenland) and in some areas is at sea level or below. The northern part of Cambridgeshire is known as "The Isle of Ely", which is remarkable for its flatness and its fertile soil.
The main town is the university city of Cambridge. The University of Cambridge is the oldest in Britain after Oxford, and with Oxford is the foremost. Its beautiful old colleges sit on mediæval streets and their delightful "backs", look out on the banks of the River Cam. Cambridge is rightly famous throughout the world. In latter years Cambridge has attracted the computer industry and biotechnology research.
The second town of Cambridgeshire is the City of Ely (possibly the smallest city in the land). Ely sits on a low hill above the fens, dominated by its cathedral. Ely Cathedral is visible for many miles across the level fenland and is known as "the Ship of the Fens". In the north of the Isle of Ely is Wisbech.
Apart from these Cambridgeshire has no towns to speak of but numerous villages. Much of Cambridgeshire, and whole of the Isle of Ely, is part of the Great Fen, now criss-crossed by canals and dykes, the fenland drained to create exceptionally fertile agricultural land. A good deal of the county is below sea level. The main rivers are the Great Ouse, the Cam (or Granta) and two artificial rivers, the Old and New Bedford Rivers (named after the Duke of Bedford), dug for the drainage scheme.
(Area: 2,044 square miles)
Norfolk is a large county in East Anglia, forming the round eastern rump of the land. The county is generally flat and intensely cultivated.
The north-western corner of Norfolk is on the Wash, where once were marshland rnning many mailes inland, now drained, and the edge of the Great Fen. In the south-eastern part of Norfolk is another area of low ground; the Norfolk Broads. The Broads strictly so called are the wide lakes linked by rivers, though the name is applied to the whole area. The main rivers of the Broads and of Norfolk as a whole, are the Waveney, while marks the boundary with Suffolk, the Yare which runs from Norwich and the Bure. The whole area is barely feet above sea level, or lower. These rivers, togther with the Broads themselves and many smaller rivers and creeks make up a network throughout western Norfolk, providing about 200 miles of inland waterways. The Broads are popular for boating holidays.
Visitors to Norfolk are charmed by cornfields patterned with cornflowers and poppies, and windmills.
There is higher ground in Norfolk too, in particular in the north of the county, out to the sea at Hunstanton, which is one of the highest places in the county (the highest point being in the heath area behind West Runton).
The Breckland district is a contrast, a country of open heathland and bracken, now much afforested.
The coast of Norfok sweeps round in a great arc. At its southern end, eastward facing, is Great Yarmouth, a fishing town still but more a seaside resort. Cromer further north is another resort. On the north coast before the Wash, at Cley-nest-the Sea and Blakeney low tide reveals muddy marshes with long creeks reaching far out.
Norwich, the county town is an ancient Cathedral City. Norwich can no longer boast of being England's second town, but it is the biggest in East Anglia and indeed its only substantial town apart from Cambridge. Norwich is famous for the number of its ancient parish churches. Amongst them the greatest church is the Cathedral, with one of the highest spires and one of the longest naves in the land, not overblown but all in perfect architectural harmony.
(Area: 1,489 square miles)
Suffolk the eastermost county in Britain. It is a rural county of flat landscape. It lies between Norfolk and Essex, divided from Norfolk by the Waveney and the Little Ouse (which rise within yards of each other in the same marsh before running in opposite directions). Suffolk's southern boundary is the Stour. To the east lies the North Sea.
The coast of Suffolk is smooth and sandy but prone to depridations from the sea. Dunwich was once a great port and indeed a capital of the Kingdom of East Anglia but it is now wholly lost to the sea and the low sandy cliffs are still retreating. Southward though Orford Ness lies on a long strip of new land between the River Ore and the sea.
The southernmost point of Suffolk is Landguard Point by Felixstowe, a substantial commercial port. It is at this point that the deep Deben, Orwell, and Stour estuaries converge. Upriver on the Orwell from Felixstowe is Ipswich, the county's main town. At the northern part of the coast is the other substantial port town, Lowestoft. Lowestoft Ness is the easternmost point of the United Kingdom.
North of Lowestoft is Suffolk's northermost corner, a little land of villages in the Suffolk Broads. The Suffolk Broads are less well known than the Norfolk Broads but are a extension of them, formed in the sea-level flood plain of the Waveney. Breedon Water, forming part of the boundary with Norfolk, is the largest of the Broads in either county.
In the north-west of Suffolk are open heaths of bracken and broken woodland. The further west, close to Cambridgeshire, is in the Great Fen. The main town in the west is Bury St Edmunds, a small, pretty town around a large cathedral; St Edmundsbury Abbey. Bury St Edmunds is the centre of the beet sugar industry.Furthest west is the Newmarket-Exning bubble, joined to the rest of the county at a point. Newmarket is completely dominated by horseracing and its concomitant occupations. Stud farms line the lanes and the heaths are filled with meadows and racetracks.
Suffolk is famous for its exquisitly picturesque villages. The best are found in the Stour valley, "Constable Country", including Cavendish, Clare, Lavenham and Long Melford, characterized by thatch and brightly coloured plaster. Pargetting is a prominent feature, reaching its peak of artistry in Suffolk. Many Suffolk churches are large and ornate beyond the size of their villages, built on the wealth of wool and weaving.