H.J. Harcourt, writing in the fledgeling Norfolk Magazine in 1948 – it started early life as The Norfolker, but readers soon voted that a clumsy title – summed it up thus: “Strangers who come into our midst are inclined treat us with benevolent condescension or with undisguised superciliousness and then expect us to acclaim them as saviours and harbingers of salvation”.

Some may affirm useful lessons have been learnt since, although Norfolk still has to put up with plenty of ribbing about being on the road to nowhere and working hard to keep that old drawbridge intact.

I suspect some of these “backwater” comments are born out of envy.

Even those in the vanguard of the Development Express roaring through too many parts of the county in recent decades must have caught at least a fleeting glimpse of what is being replaced. There’s also now an element of admiration in backhanders like: “The only way to lead Norfolk people is to find out which they are going -and then march in front of them”.

It's one thing to be noticed for being different , and to be amusingly chastised for it, but........

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