A comparison between Norfolk and Suffolk

As I chronicled in my book, Down The Garden Path- Snippets from the Cottage Gardener (2019), I have a special affection for my home county of Norfolk and its sleepy, bucolic landscape and plethora of medieval buildings.

However since my Mum sold our house there in 2018 I have had to return as a tourist and even more of an outsider. But it has been very nice to potter around the lanes not just of North West Norfolk but the Waveney valley near Diss with its moated and thatched houses and cows grazing on the green grass created by the river. Similarly, the wild but largely working class seaside resorts on the North East Norfolk coast beyond Cromer such as Mundesley and Winterton. The beaches are just as beautiful as North West Norfolk but there are more caravans and less tarted up flint holiday cottages. Also, there is the area around Thetford with its pines and eery silence plus the fine churches surrounding Reepham.

But I am a middle class boy and so it is natural that the Suffolk coast should appeal to me as well. In 2018 I walked 70 miles from Felixstowe to Homersfield via the Suffolk Coast and despite it not being as epic as some travel walks such as Laurie Lee’s I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning when he crossed Spain from North to South I look back on it with great fondness aside from a close shave crossing the A12.

Why is this? Well, the Suffolk coast does not have a coast road running its whole length as it does in Norfolk so the settlements there are more isolated such as the lost city of Dunwich and the secluded Orford with its castle, excellent seafood and post apocalyptic island, Orford Ness. Despite this and probably because it is closer to London Suffolk is a much more foodie county, at least in my experience. The bakeries and coffee are better and so is the fish and chips and there are a lot more pubs that take food genuinely seriously instead of just charging gastro pub prices for mediocre food as some pubs in Norfolk are guilty of. And of course despite some of the best barley being grown on the Norfolk coast I still think Adnams of Southwold is the premier brewer of East Anglia and is well complemented by the equally successful Aspalls whose site is tucked away just north of the pretty village of Debenham in mid-Suffolk not far from Eye. I drove past it on my recent trip in January and although there were some apple trees close by it is quite remarkable that a county so empty of apple trees can have such a premium cider brand that stands toe to toe with those from the West country.

Anyway, Suffolk is undoubtedly busier overall…especially on the main roads and the people are very posh except in Ipswich and Felixstowe (which is the exception that proves the rule!). As Simon Knott said if you see someone driving a pick-up in Norfolk they have probably got a shotgun in the back, a baseball cap on and Country and Western music on the radio whereas in Suffolk they are probably driving a piece of antique furniture back to Islington, North London. Speaking of Simon Knott I cannot recommend his website on East Anglian churches enough. He has compiled an impressive list in immense and lyrical detail of almost every church in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire( http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/) and it has been a more amusing and helpful guide than the dryness of Pevsner or conceit of Simon Jenkins. Anyway, based on what he has helped me see I must add to what I have already said that I think that Suffolk churches are better. Admittedly, Norwich has a great wealth of churches but the context of the countryside is also vitally important in visiting a church in East Anglia…..travelling along a winding Suffolk lane with huge oaks on each side of the verge and perhaps pheasants scuttling under the hedgerows is part of the whole experience of visiting East Anglia and I hope that will not change.

Anyway, my point is that in the best 10 churches in Suffolk the rural context adds a huge amount to the overall aura of the church whereas in Norfolk in most cases the context is beautifully rural but aren’t quite as unique in their situation. For example, when you have Blythburgh church, arguably the finest church in East Anglia, with the marshes on one side and the estuary on the other you have a context that can make the church more than the sum of its parts and it is the same with the pilgrimage site of Iken church near Snape Maltings or the end of the world feeling you get at Covehithe church with its giant shell of a church close to the crumbling cliffs.

Don’t get me wrong-Norfolk has a rich variety of great churches but I would argue that they are not quite as good. Maybe a few can match Suffolk for rural context- think Burham Norton or Salthouse church on their windswept hills not far from the sea and Little Witchingham in the swaying grasses of September in the back lanes round Reepham. But overall there are a lot more cases in Suffolk where the context of a church is as breathtaking as the building itself.

Similarly, in terms of wall paintings still visible despite the attempts of the Puritans and William Dowsing(the great smasher of Popish ornaments in East Anglia) I think again Suffolk is superior. On my last trip in January 2022 I saw the best wall paintings I have ever seen in North Cove church (near Lowestoft), sadly open only on request from the churchwarden, which gives only a hint of what riches must have existed when these churches were lavishly painted with images of the Last Judgement, The Wheel of Fortune and The Resurrection. Similarly, the Wenhaston doom is worthy of the Victoria and Albert Museum but is found in a very modest country church. Of course there are wall paintings in Norfolk churches such as those of the martyrdom of St Edmund at Fritton or St George and the Dragon at the wonderful little church at Little Witchingham which was saved from ruin intially by the art historian Eve Baker and subsequently by the Norfolk Churches Trust. But overall Suffolk is to my great regret a bit better….

There is a similar theme in the small market towns that dot the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Again, the lack of money in Norfolk at least in comparison to Suffolk means that many Norfolk towns such as Fakenham, Dereham and Hunstanton have little to offer in terms of shopping or eating experience because the people who shop there are not prepared to spend much money on food and drink, books or clothes. It does not bother me particularly because there are other diversions in Norfolk towns aside from the shopping. Of course not all Norfolk towns are impoverished- think Holt or Burnham Market and indeed the capital; the vibrant, cosmopolitan and wealthy Norwich. But driving through inland rural Suffolk I discovered market towns such as Botesdale and Debenham which were well off the tourist trail and therefore I expected to be slightly run-down but still had a thriving high street as well as pretty Suffolk pink thatched cottages, a fine situation and lovely grand churches.

But what Norfolk does have which Suffolk does not to the same extent is tranquility and wildness. There are a lot more deserted country lanes in Norfolk and there are much fewer big roads such as the ghastly A12 and A11 and the A roads that there are in Norfolk are mainly concentrated around Great Yarmouth and Norwich. Although Suffolk has patches that feel more isolated overall the estuaries and beaches of Norfolk feel wilder and that you have more space. Old Hunstanton beach, Scolt Head, Gun Hill and Holkham beach to name a few are not really matched by anything in Suffolk.

Furthermore, there are a lot more hedgerows, habitats and cover left for wildlife( most noticeably birds) in Norfolk fields. Generally, I feel that Norfolk farmers have managed to stay closer in tune with the natural world than the semi-industrialized farming that I feel has gone on in much larger parts of Suffolk. Sometimes I felt quite intimidated by the huge fields of Suffolk that seemingly stretch to the horizon with very little wildlife visible on the unnaturally bare earth.

So despite the obvious advantages of living in Suffolk Norfolk will always be my favourite partly because of the bias created by having spent my childhood there. But also because it is relatively unspoilt, wild and peaceful in a way I don’t think any other county in the South of England is except parts of Devon and Cornwall, perhaps. I rest my case so to speak….its just my opinion and I admit to using some sweeping generalizations but all that is written here is based on the love of 39 years ranging all over that beautiful county and to a lesser extent it’s posher step-sister from further South.