Norfolk is a strange place. Its population density is only a third that of Hampshire because most of the land is occupied by ‘Big Ag’, growing mono-crops such as barley, sugar beet and oil-seed rape. It is a Conservative heartland, like most rural areas.

Within the endless fields, tended at night by giant machines, there are pockets of beauty, but the coastline is the treasure. The Norfolk Broads, of course, and the seaside resorts are popular. It is hard to look at any predominantly rural county and imagine it prior to the railway cuts that started in the 1950s, and which culminated in the recommendations of the Beeching report of 1963. The thought process around railways has been about saving money (and making money elsewhere). The ghastly web of main roads in the UK has sundered communities and massively increased pollution. Road building and maintenance has squandered natural resources. Large parts of the country are now only available to the motorist, depriving those who can’t or won’t drive long distances.

Norfolk has no motorway – one small blessing.