East Region

The legendary beauty of Cambridge with its majestic colleges and dreamy 'backs' where students and tourists float along the river Cam, tea shops and smart boutiques contrast with the glorious gardens of Clare and Kings, Trinity and Madingley,  jewels in the architectural crown.  Then there is Norfolk with its watery paradises contrasted with the gardens of stately homes and cottages which is not entirely flat as maligned by Noel Coward. Norfolk has some of the grandest private houses and gardens rarely open to the public.  This includes the Sandringham gardens where the Queen has her country home. The quietest and most old-fashioned county in the East is Suffolk.  Bordered by the sea as are Norfolk and Essex, there are still small market towns, perfect coastal villages and gardens from cottage to exotic to  stately. Essex is rather flat but has some of the best gardens in England made on gravel (and heavy clay) to defeat the weather - Essex is the driest county in the country, once classified as arid with less rainfall than Egypt. Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire have gently rolling countryside with charming and unexpected villages to surprise the visitor.

Click here for the County Organiser list for this area