REGIONAL FOCUS and LOCAL INTEREST GUIDES in and around NORFOLK, SUFFOLK, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ESSEX and the NORFOLK BROADS in EAST ANGLIA UK.

Situated inland on the river Waveney, Beccles sits at the southern point of the Broads National Park. With fantastic views of the Broad, rolling countryside and historic market town Beccles has a character to charm all visitors....

At the beginning of this millennium, as the nation, led by any number of television producers, seems to ponder its history a little more closely, Colchester's role in early Britain looks increasingly pivotal. For, two thousand years ago, this most ancient of British towns was spanning the cross-over between pre-history and history just before the Romans came to stay...

The seafront improvements include a series of art installations that celebrate 200 years of Cromer's lifeboats, featuring atmospheric lighting that brings the seafront alive at night, the extension and refurbishment of the Pavilion Theatre and renovation of the pier entrance, plus new lighting along the promenade (all work finished), as well as the new RNLI museum, to be completed this year.

Gorleston-on-Sea lies between Lowestoft and Gt Yarmouth on the east coast in Norfolk and features its own bay and riverside, with a sandy beach stretching into the distance below glorious cliff gardens and a grand promenade.

Great Yarmouth is a seaside town situated in Norfolk. Yarmouth (as known to locals) has been a seaside town since 1760. For hundreds of years Gt Yarmouth was a fishing port that was dependant on the herring fishery. Today it services for the off-shore oil rigs based in the North Sea

Once upon a time, in the age of sail when ships were small and roads were mere tracks (and usually impassable in winter), river transport was the thing. In the flatness of Broadland with its 125 miles (200km) of relatively lock-free navigation, a notable transport system developed.

It looks like a mess and - in physical terms at least - nothing may now be done about it. Happisburgh’s cliffs are going south and it’s just hard luck for those on top. We are talking forces of nature here, the irresistible sea meeting the eminently movable - or reducible - low cliffs of north east Norfolk...

At the end of the first millennium, Cambridgeshire had hit bad times again just when it was beginning to carve an identity. In the roller coaster of the previous few hundred years, it had been a sort of no-man's land of forest, fen and chalk ridge where control ebbed and flowed during the regional (pre-Viking) wars...

Here is a parable of war, recession and class oppression. It is a Fenland tale of hard times which, one night nearly 200 years ago, on a mix of desperation and alcohol, saw things get badly out of hand. There were no deaths, at least not until five of the perpetrators got strung up when the forces of law and self-righteousness eventually regained control...

Lowestoft is the most easterly point of the British coast. Lowestoft once played a major part in the UK's fishing industry. Today Lowestoft is know for the annual airshow held on the beach which often features the Red Arrows.

Seventy five years ago, a Norfolk physician, Dr Sydney Herbert Long, with a practice in Norwich and a passion for nature, put into effect a plan which, although he probably didn't realise it at the time, would set a pattern for wildlife protection across the whole country...

In his study of marsh harriers, Nigel had for years being treading the paths and river banks of the Wensum valley where a string of small moors and fens make appropriate habitat far enough from the madding crowd to support a modest population of these large but shy creatures. He studied their habits, their terrain and their diet.

John Fox was a wherryman. He and his father and his grandfather all worked with those stately boats which, for more than a hundred years, had been the main cargo craft of Norfolk's rivers and broads. By John's time, the wherries were motorised and perhaps less stately, the black sails having long been discarded firstly to compete with the railways...