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This article is about the region. For the European constituency, see .
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The East of England is one of nine official
purposes. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of , , , ,
has the highest population in the region.
Its population at the 2011 census was 5,847,000. , , , , , , , ,
are the region's most populous towns. The southern part of the region lies in the .
The region has the lowest elevation range in the UK. North Cambridgeshire and the Essex Coast have most of the around 5% of the region which is below 10 metres above sea level.
are partly in North Cambridgeshire which is notable for the lowest point in the country in the land of the village of
2.75 metres (9.0 ft) below mean sea level which was once . The highest point is at Clipper Down at 817 ft (249 m), in the far south-western corner of the region in the Ivinghoe Hills.
Basildon and Harlow (Essex), with Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead (Hertfordshire), were main
in the 1950s and 1960s, with much in three of these are on motorways, and fairly equidistant from London. In the late 1960s, the
considered
in Bedfordshire,
in Hertfordshire and
in Essex as a possible .
The East of England succeeded the
East Anglia (excluding ,
then in the ). The East of England
was identical to today's region.
England between the Wash and Thames Estuary has since post-Roman times (6th century) been and continues to be known as , including the county traversing the west of this line, .
Essex, despite meaning East-Saxons, previously formed part of the , as did Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, a mixture of definite and debatable . The earliest use of the term is from 1695. , in An essay upon ways and means of supplying the war, wrote, "The Eleven Home Counties, which are thought in Land Taxes to pay more than their proportion..." then cited a list including these four. The term does not appear to have been used in taxation since the 18th century.
East Anglia is one of the driest parts of the United Kingdom with average rainfall ranging from 450 mm to 750 mm. This is usually because
systems and
have lost a lot of their moisture over land (and therefore are usually a lot weaker) by the time they reach Eastern England. However
in Cambridgeshire are prone to flooding should a strong system affect the area.
Winter (mid November – mid March) is mostly cool but non-prevailing cold easterly winds can affect the area from the continent, these can bring heavy snowfall if the winds interact with a
over the Atlantic or . Northerly winds can also be cold but are not usually as cold as easterly winds. Westerly winds bring milder and, typically, wetter weather. Southerly winds usually bring mild air (if from the Atlantic or ) but chill if coming from further east than Spain.
Spring (mid March – May) is a transitional season that can be chilly to start with but is usually warm by late-April/May. The weather at this time is often changeable (within each day) and occasionally showery.
Summer (June – mid September) is usually warm and continental air from mainland Europe or the
usually leads to at least a few weeks of hot, balmy weather with prolonged warm to hot weather. The number of summer storms from the Atlantic, such as the remnants of a
usually coincides with the location of the . The East tends to receive much less of their rain than the other regions.
Autumn (mid September – mid November) is usually mild with some days being very unsettled and rainy and others warm. At least part of September and early October in the East have warm and settled weather but only in rare years is there an
where fine weather marks the entire traditional harvest season.
The most deprived districts, according to the
in the region are, in descending order, Great Yarmouth (58th in England), Norwich (62nd),
(87th), Peterborough (90th) and
(99th). At county level, after Luton and Peterborough, which have a similar level of deprivation, in descending order there is
The least deprived districts, in descending order, are South Cambridgeshire, Uttlesford, Mid Bedfordshire, East Hertfordshire, St Albans, Brentwood, Rochford, Chelmsford, Huntingdonshire, Mid Suffolk, Broadland, North Hertfordshire, Dacorum, Three Rivers, South Norfolk, East Cambridgeshire and Suffolk Coastal. At county level, the least deprived areas in the region, in descending order, are Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, with all three having a similar level of deprivation, then Essex.
The region has the lowest proportion of jobless households in the UK – 0.5%.[]
In March 2011 the region's
count was 3.0%. Inside the region, the highest rate is
with 6.2%, followed by Peterborough, Ipswich and
In the 2015 general election, there was an overall swing of 0.25% from the Conservatives to Labour, and the Liberal Democrats lost 16% of its vote. All of Hertfordshire and Suffolk is now Conservative. The region's electorate voted 49% Conservative, 22% Labour, 16% UKIP, 8% Liberal Democrat and 4% Green. Like other regions, the division of seats favours the dominant party in the region, and the Conservatives have 52, Labour 4 (, ,
and ), UKIP 1 () and 1 Liberal Democrat ().
Constituencies in the East of England (58)
(NUTS), the East of England is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKH", which is subdivided as follows:
East of England
exists to co-ordinate the work of the local councils in the area and provides other functions. It is based in
on the A1101 north-west of . The Government shut the Government office for the East of England in 2011, the
is being closed also. The East of England also elects MEPs for the .
The current version of the , a revision of the
for the East of England, was published on 12 May 2008. It was revoked on 3 January 2013
The official
consists of the following subdivisions:
Ceremonial county
Shire county / unitary
1.  U.A.
2.  U.A.
3. Essex
a) , b) , c) , d) , e) , f) , g) , h) , i) , j) , k) , l) 
a) , b) , c) , d) , e) , f) , g) , h) , i) , j) 
5.  U.A.
6.  U.A.
7.  U.A.
8. Cambridgeshire
a) , b) , c) , d) , e) 
9.  U.A.
a) , b) , c) , d) , e) , f) , g) 
a) , b) , c) , d) , e) , f) , g) 
found at , Norfolk, in 1990, is the most complete in the world.
discovered on a nearby beach in 2010 at
are 900,000 years old, and the oldest eveidence of early humans outside of Africa, known as , with the earliest flint hand axe in north-west Europe..
from 1375–81, introduced the Poll Tax in Sudbury in the 1300s and the subsequent
in Essex in May 1381 was led by . , from Suffolk, qualified as Britain's first female doctor in 1865, and was the granddaughter of , whose company produced some of the first steam-powered road vehicles. On 3 October 1959 postcodes were introduced in the UK at N Norwich was the first main town in the UK to be pedestrianised in 1967. The
was introduced in October 1972 from Southend. King's Lynn was the first in the UK to install a town-centre CCTV system, from 1987.
Britain's first self-service petrol station was opened on 24 March 1966 on
Lane in St Albans by .
The East of England was a major force and resource for Parliament, and in particular in the form of the .
came from Huntingdon.
Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex played host to the American
has an exhibition, commemorating their participation and sacrifice, near to the M11 south of Cambridge.
Stansted Airport was , home to the . The
was mainly assembled at Hatfield and Leavesden, although much of the innovative wooden structure originated outside the region from the fu the Mosquito entered service in 1942 with
in Bedford is the airfield from where
secret agents for Europe took off, with
which parachuted agents and equipment and
which landed and retrieved agents.
at Duxford was the first to be equipped with the Spitfire on 4 August 1938.
Rudimentary
was developed by the USAF at , a prototype drone aircraft of , with 's older brother
aboard, exploded on 12 August 1944 over the
in Suffolk.
A magnetic mine found in 1939 at , now in Southend, allowed the German magnetic
threat to be subdued, with work done at
in Portsmouth.
from January 1952, in the late 1980s some of the aircraft went to . Alconbury closed in 1992, and Bentwaters closed in 1993, with the American air forces being in the area for 42 the USAF aircraft subsequently moved to
in , Germany.
in west Norfolk,
developed the RAF' later the squadron would be equipped with the . Work on refuelling had also taken place at
From the 1950s,
was an important reconnaissance base for the RAF, mainly . The base is now home of the , previously known as JARIC, or the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre from 1956.
discovered the
at Cambridge on 28 February 1953. , at Cambridge, invented the term genetics and co-discovered
GSK in Harlow in August 2009
in , west of Cambridge,
(IVF) was first achieved in 1978. Smith, Kline and French developed
in the 1970s at , the site was sold by
in December 2010, and in World War II was home to , which made sabotage equipment for secret agents. Tagamet was for many years the world's best-selling prescription drug - the team had been led by ,
and . In 1912 in Cambridge
discovered vitamins, gaining the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1929. Under Sir ,
at Ware (part of Glaxo Group Research since 1958, next to ) developed
(for asthma) in the late 1960s and
(for ) in the late 1970s; Zantac was the first pharmaceutical to sell more than $1 more recently
(also for asthma) was developed there and the site is now part of GSK, which has a separate manufacturing site there. In 1975 at Cambridge
, and gained the 1984 ; the MRC LMB has had many Nobel prizes for Medicine. , known as Humira, the world's best-selling drug, was partly developed in Cambridge by .
was based at , in , north of Harlow.
and Hinxton Hall, off the Stump Cross Interchange of the M11 (J9), home of the Wellcome Genome Campus and the European Bioinformatics Institute, which houses the
the UK's first
took place in January 1979, being operated by Sir
and Sir , on 44-year-old Charles McHugh. The world's first heart, lung and liver transplant was performed there on 17 December 1986. The world's first long-term
was implanted (and connected) on 26 August 1994 - by D the patient lived for 9 John Wallwork had performed Europe's first
there in 1984; such transplants are often carried out on people with .
conducted Britain's first
there in September 1958 on a woman with an , known as a hole in the heart.
was an important naturalist from Essex, and the first to distinguish
in his 1682 book Methodus Plantarum Nova. , of
in Norfolk, introduced
to Britain (which had originated in Holland) in the early 1700s using , ,
potato was developed by the
in 1966. At the , near Harpenden in Hertfordshire,
was discovered, this is the most widely used he later at the station, the
insecticide was developed, under Michael Elliott, which is now the most common insecticide on the domestic market.
from Colchester was an impor the
was a former unit of .
in the late 1930s and at
on the S on 24 July 1935 at Orfordness was the first detection on a
screen of tracking a plane on radar - a . Earlier radio had been developed around C much of Britain's electronics industry was derived from Marconi, later to be GEC and now . In 1864
at Cambridge discovered his , part of his .
(previously Cambridge Silicon Radio) has made much technology for .
British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge
, a chemist from Norfolk, discovered
in 1802 and
in 1804, and in 1802 discovered the features of the 's electromagnetic spectrum, known as , allowing the chemical composition of the Sun to be determined. In 1938 at Cambridge, , a
from the USA, would mainly develop chaos theory in 1963, and the
in 1969. In the 1960s at Cambridge, the
was developed by Sir , and first made by the
in 1965. In 1966, Cambridge geophysicists
proved plate tectonics was first suggested at C continental drift had first been proposed, though not extensively proved, by the German
in 1912. In 1985, Norwich's
discovered the
in the , when part of Cambridge's .
and , using a
performed the first artificial
on 14 April 1932, with a
on lithium (producing helium) at the Cavendish L using this work on 12 September 1933 the Hungarian
would conceive the idea of the
whilst standing at a set of traffic lights on
in , returning from a lecture by
which discussed
1914 book , that overtly prophecised nuclear weapons. The
has 29 Nobel prize winners, more than anywhere else, and many Western countries.
Chelmsford is the birthplace of radio
of Ipswich built the first engine-powered commercial lawnmower in 1902. The firm would later own . The
from 1961 changed bread production all over world.
of Hertfordshire was the first company to produce
envelopes in 1850, and
in 1929 (in production quantities). The
in Norfolk is the country's biggest collection of steam engines.
on the B1008 in Chelmsford was the world's first radio factory in 1912; on 15 June 1920, Britain's first radio broadcast was made by Dame . The first radio broadcast in UK was in December 1919 from Marconi in Chelmsford, broadcasting news for the first time in December 1920. The world's first scheduled broadcast from the
(Two Emma Toc) Marconi transmitter at
was from 14 February 1922, only on Tuesday evenings. The world's first real-time computer (Type 152) with memory store () was built in 1947 by the
at B the site became
in 1978 and
in 1984, and also had .
Part of the
being built at Stevenage by
(former Astrium) in March 2015; Hertfordshire built the UK's rockets, with Stevenage being the main home of the UK's spacecraft
Glues for the Mosquito wooden airframe were developed by
at his Duxford-based , the site is now owned by . The Mosquito fuselage was made from two halves of balsawood () from , and Canadian , which had a
fab the wings were made from
and . De Havilland built the
(the world's first , first flying in July 1949 when piloted by , powered by , and designed by ) at Hatfield, and built the
rocket launcher at its S by the end of WWII the , designed by , was the world's most powerful jet engine.
engine came from
of C its former site is now the Rivermead university campus. The first
system demonstrated on an airliner was with a
in March 1964, with a system developed by
with similar work also done for the RAF Plessey was a world leader in
from Norfolk, was the main designer for
until the 1950s, designing the
in June 1919) to the , both pioneering aircraft. From 1945 to 1992, Rolls-Royce designed and built its helicopter () engines at its Small Engine Division at Leavesden, now a film set, these engines are now built by
(from 1966). Britain's first satellite constructed in the UK -
(originally titled UK-3) - was built at 's Guided Weapon Division in Stevenage in the mid-1960s, later launched in May 1967. The
was initially mostly British-led by
at Stevenage and test-fired at
in Australia, but later the subsequent
would be mostly French-built
is 64% French and 20% German by ownership, and has no British share of ownership. The
was developed by BAC (guided weapons division) at Stevenage (former English Electric).
The first transition from hover to free flight of the
took place on 8 September 1961 at RAE Bedford, with its first conventional flight also there on 13 March 1961; the Harrier was first delivered to RAF Wittering on 18 April 1969 the next squadron to have the Harrier was
at . In June 1954, the first
flew from Luton A it was the world's first-designed jet trainer aircraft. On 30 April 1958, the
first flew from RAE Bedford. The , unveiled in 2014 at Cardington, is the longest aircraft in the world. The Comet G-ALYP was the first to enter commercial service for a jet, on 2 May 1952, on a flight from London Airport to J flying back from Rome to London, on a flight from Singapore on 10 January 1954, the aircraft was the second Comet to crash in-flight on , and maybe the first to sho 114 Comets were made. The
(DH.125) was the world's first business jet, when it first flew in August 1962 at Hatfield, later mostly built at Chester (); later it evolved into the , made in , and the design is the world's best selling business jet, with over 1,000 built. The , which entered service in 1974, started life as the Hawker Siddeley// HBN 100, with much of the initial design produced by Hawker Siddeley from its HS.134 the wings were developed from the Trident
design (designed in the late 1950s). Of the companies involved with Airbus at the beginning, only Hawker Siddeley (former De Havilland) at Hatfield had designed anything as la the company may have consequently been headquartered at Hatfield and not . Today's Airbus wings are all made at Broughton in , and all the undercarriage is made in
In 1951 on an
computer at Cambridge,
made the world's
with a digital graphical display - a version of ; the , the world's first commercial computer developed by John Simmons at , was a Cambridge EDSAC.
was based in Cambridge, as was its competitor in the 1980s, . Sinclair invented the (?80 current value)
in 1972, the world's fi then it invented the world's first digital
(which had technical problems) in 1975.
in Harlow, then owned by ITT, is where
as we know today, are recognised as beginning, when developed by
(they received the
in 2009); the first trial cable was laid between Hitchin and Stevenage in 1978. The first optical fibre that was part of a
was laid between Martlesham and Ipswich in 1978. Acorn successfully tested its first chip on 26 April 1985 (made in the USA by ), leading to the
in 1987, powered by its chip design. Acorn RISC Machines Ltd was formed in 1990, becoming ARM Holdings in 1998, and its
went into all , and on
chips (the ); currently there are now over 20 billion ARM chips in mobile phones.
founded by
in 1959 in Hertfordshire was Britain's first software house.
is Britain's only
(PWR), and is near
in Suffolk with enough power f Sizewell A had opened in 1966 and
had opened in 1962. Sir
(born in Cambridge) developed the hovercraft on , Suffolk in 1956. , now in Thurrock, was where
was first ever produced there in 1920; the refinery closed in 1999. Charles Wallace Chapman of
invented the high speed diesel engine, first building an experimental version (the Vixen) in December 1932 on Queen Street in Peterborough. The world's first diesel-engined car, a
fitted with the engine in March 1933, was tested around P the first production engine would be the , with the innovative Perkins Aerofl the Perkins Engines company developed mainly from this engine.
developed a process at
to produce continuous rolls of paper, as
- the Fourdrinier Machine, developed with .
in Hemel Hempstead invented the colour scanner in 1958. Great Yarmouth's
designed the
and initial plans of the . Captain
of Norfolk invented the first portable
The former electricity company for the area, , has the area's distribution now looked after by
at Fore Hamlet in . UK Power Networks also looks after London and most of the South-East.
in the East of England is next door to the headquarters of T-Mobile UK in Hatfield, at the roundabout of the A1057 and the A1001 on the Bishops Square Business Park. The region's
in Cambridgeshire, off the
and north of .
for the region is in
with its international trade team based next to .
, which was the
for the area until the abolition of these areas in 2013, is on Capital Park, next to
Tesco, , and the , on the eastern edge of Cambridge. The
is on Cambourne Business Park on , off the
(the former ) west of Cambridge. The
operates from .
Wetherspoons is based in Watford near
The Greater
area is home to ,
(which bought
in 2008), the UK of the international firm , retailers , , , , , and , ,
(at ), , , , ,
electronic goods manufacturers,
pub chains, the European HQ of the
hotel group and
is the UK headquarters of the , on the , and the .
(owners of the ), on the , are in .
and ) is in .
(construction) are in .
(close to the ) are the , where the
films were made and more recently ; and
is based in Elstree. Borehamwood is also home to BBC Elstree and . The ,
(owners of ) and ),
are based in , where , ,
(formerly Bull and Honeywell), , and
have their UK bases.
UK makes () industrial
off the A4147, next to Dixons.
(DAB radios) is in , with its parent company
which is a world-leading designer of microprocessors. The town was formerly the home of
until 2002.
on the B488 in Tring is the UK's biggest producer of eggs.
's headquarters are located in ,
are , the former headquarters of
until 2009 (formerly the Thresher Group), , the UK headquarters of , , , and .
were manufactured in the town by
() until April 2008, which has its UK headquarters at the A junction.
and a plant of GSK are in . , with
(a ) (which has made parts for the
mission, , , and ) and
(formerly , then ) are near the A1(M) bypass opposite each other on the A1072.
are based in . ,
and the HQ of
are next to each other on the A1001.
(near the railway bridge over the A1081),
(on the B691) also
Corp's USA, UK subsidiary, ;
(, owned by BSkyB), is next to the .
(the former A5) next to the M25 and
at Ventura Park, the former site of
(materials for ) has its main operations in . Royde & Tucker in Hitchin, Hertfordshire is the UK's leading manufacturer of door , and William Ransom & Son makes pharmaceuticals and .
has the world's largest printing press at
has , the main research division of
(on a former BP site), the European headquarters of ,
(polymers), and the main manufacturing plant of .
(electrical supplies) is based at the / junction in .
began his brewery in Bedfordshire in 1742
has its headquarters at
in Bedfordshire (at the ).
Luton is home to ,
(both based at the airport),
(which makes , and is based on the B579 in ),
(UK office),
on the eastern edge of the town), and
(at Griffin House, the Vauxhall head office). At the 85-acre
and junction 10a of the M1, is the
(owner of , ,
UK (which bought most of Whitbread's beer brands), Chargemaster ( under the POLAR brand), 's UK Marketing Company division, and
(ladies clothing).
produced its last
in March 2002 at the plant near the A6/A505 roundabout, and now makes vans (/) at the former
plant, based in the north of the town at the
plant. Near ,
is a manufacturing
for car manufacturers.
and , and is based in the north of Luton on the opposite side of the
to Vauxhall.
(formerly Pilkington Aerospace before 2003), the world's leading manufacturer of military , which also makes , is at . , based on the
in Luton near the M1, is a leading medical equipment manufacturer, and nearby, Certwood made the plastic seats for London's .
(owned by Whitbread) is headquartered, with the UK headquarters of
and ), in , north Luton. Its neighbour in
is home to
and , a main magazine printers.
Wigmore House in Luton, home of TUI UK, and , the world's largest charter airline
Bedford is home to
(formerly ).
on the A6 next to , and
is south of the town on the A6.
is in nearby .
UK (defence) is at .
has its main distribution centre for England (its first in the UK, established in May 1999) at the
Marston Gate site at
near junction 13 of the M1 () next to . Hanson Building Products was the largest producer of aggregates in the world, being taken over by
in August 2007, and has always been based at Stewartby off the
south of Bedford next to the .
is in , towards St Neots.
(electronics) and
Europe and
has its main food research site (where low fat spreads were invented) at
Flag of East Anglia
, the headquarters of , north-west of Norwich at
The economy in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk is traditionally mostly agricultural. Norfolk is the UK's biggest producer of potatoes. Nationally known companies include the ,
(publishing),
(formerly ) in Norwich. In Carrow, to the east of the city,
makes a wide range of mustards, and
squash, which was owned by Colman's until 1995. Across the
near the A47/ junction in
is , the construction company.
has a large turkey farm on the former
was made in
until 2008, and on the Hardwick Industrial Estate at the A47/ junction is
UK, which packs , and .
is the UK's leading manufacturer of commercial refrigerators and , owned by , based on t with , which has a manufacturing plant there, and which invented the
in 1956, and
for garages. Linda McCartney sausages are made by Hain Celestial Frozen Foods at , where
produces around 6000 tonnes of chocolate each year, which is mostly private label (supermarket) products. British Sugar's
is the world's largest
factory in , on the B1160 near the .
are on the eastern edge of the former , east of
makes household chemicals in ,
makes furniture and
has a manufacturing plant in the south of the town.
vegetable products (roast potatoes) are made by
at , in a factory built by .
designed in Cambridge
Around Cambridge on numerous , are high technology (electronics and biochemistry) companies, such as
in the south-east of the town,
at the /B1050 junction north of the town, ,
on the Cambridge Business Centre. The
east of Duxford near the M11 spur for the A11. These form the so-called .
in the east of the town, towards . South of the airport,
in Cherry Hinton.
is to the east of Cambridge, on Capital Park at .
has a large plant in
is a pioneering hospital in the UK, based at . On the
(in ), the first science park in Europe (when founded in 1970 by ), near the junction of the A14 and A10 () and on the western side of the A1309 in , are
(), the European HQ of , ,
(biotechnology), 's European R&D centre, and . On , on the eastern side of the A1309 (formerly the A10) and inside the district of Cambridge, are , an FTSE-100 company, , , and
(). On the 200-acre
near the A1307/A11 junction south of Cambridge is
(formerly Cambridge Antibody Technology, now owned by ) which researches antibodies. , Pfizer Regenerative Medicine,
are nearby. The science park has its own cricket pitch.
Cambridgeshire has a few
(restaurants) is in .
next to the A1. Avanquest UK, the home software company which bought EMME (which bought GSP in 2000) in 2007, is in , off the A1096.
makes petfood at its South Brink factory in , with another in .
(formerly owned by
before February 2011) can vegetables and baked beans, and makes
cooking sauces in the town.
(potato products) is on the Weasanham Lane Ind Estate in the south of Wisbech, and next door
can fruit. On the
at , south of Wisbech, Herbert Engineering is Britain's main producer of . The main water company for the area,
are based in . JDR Cable Systems makes
at the /A1101 roundabout at .
has a factory (which was the largest frozen food factory in the world when it opened in 1976, processing 200,000 tonnes of potatoes annually) on the
and , near London Brick, at Whittlesey, towards Peterborough.
Thomas Cook headquarters, next to the East Coast Main Line in
was the home of the
from August 1969 until December 2010, and now houses Army personnel, along with the RAF Regiment. , Silver Spoon and the
are based near each other in Peterborough, as is
has a main office there and
(owner of , previously owned by
before 2007) has its UK headquarters in . Next door is
(part of ), which owns ,
(since November 2011 part of the ) is in .
(formerly EMAP Consumer Media) are headquartered on Lincoln Road.
has its magazine headquarters off the A605 in Orton W and
(Compare The Market) is in
next to the .
develop sports cars at .
makes food processing equipment next to the Paston Parkway (A15) in .
Gate guard at
still has bases in Suffolk.
produce seeds in , off the A14. In
is the base of the
and the . , is based on the side of the A14 just west of Bury St Edmunds at ,
UK is in , and
(and also the UK base of -owned ) is in
where there is a large
factory. The
is based at , between the A1088 and A134, south of Thetford, partly in . The , which flies the
is at . Silverline is a main maker of steel office furniture ( and ) in Mildenhall, next to the airfield.
are in Bury St Edmunds, and British Sugar makes all its
is the UK's leading manufacturer of
cubicles and , based on the
at , north of Bury St Edmunds.
next to the A14, and is part of the .
has had its main labs at
near , off the , since 1975. This site now claims to be the largest software development centre in Europe.
is based at
off the A1152, near the former .
just south of Ipswich. Ransomes Jacobsen (part of Textron) makes sit-down lawn mowers on the Ransomes Europark near the A14/A1189 junction. The
is the UK's busiest
terminal and the 28th
in the world. , now no longer part of , now has its main factories in
near , and LEC Marine makes .
for the North Sea.
is on the Suffolk coast at . The electricity supplier Haven Power is based in Ipswich.
produces seeds, west of Ipswich just off the A14 at .
(part of ) makes
off the A1017 in , and on the same industrial estate
makes fragrances, and Marchant Manufacturing makes polythene (retail) bags.
Ford of Europe's Dunton Technical Centre
is headquartered in
in south . ,
(mountain bikes) and
(formerly ) are in , and
makes circuit protection systems, and is based at Cranes near the / junction, with a factory at Southend.
is on the A1016 in , which is the historic home of the
now run by
is at . , which makes electrical power equipment and tools, is on the B1393 (formerly the A11) in .
is in , where
factory next to junction 5 of the M11, printing notes for the
and other countries.
is in , Essex.
The army has a large base in , which is the home of the
and . In the east of Colchester, off the
is , formerly owned by , which built the diesel engines for most UK trains, and further south in the town at
there is .[]
M11 near Cambridge
As part of the transport planning system the Regional Assembly is under statutory requirement to produce a
to provide long term planning for transport in the region. This involves region wide transport schemes such as those carried out by the
Within the region the local transport authorities carry out transport planning through the use of a
which outlines their strategies, policies and implementation programme. The most recent LTP is that for the period 2006-11. In the East of England region the following transport authorities have published their LTP online: , , , ,
U.A. Since 1 April 2009, when the county of Bedfordshire was split into two unitary councils, the Bedfordshire transport authority has ceased to exist, however it is the most recent LTP for the area.
The East of England region is covered by the Highways Agency
6 and part of area 8. Major roads servicing these areas include the
London to Milton Keynes,
London to Cambridge,
through Hertfordshire and Essex,
London to Peterborough,
St. Albans to Milton Keynes,
London to Norwich,
London to Great Yarmouth,
Felixstowe to Rugby via Cambridge,
Great Yarmouth to Nuneaton and the
Harwich to Stansted. There are a number of
throughout the region. Britain's first main motorway, the M1, opened at Toddington on 2 November 1959.
in Bedfordshire, on the A6 north of Bedford, was the first UK place in December 2012 to have the Siemens
average speed cameras (similar to , with much-reduced infrastructure) using
The region is serviced by Network Rail
as well as parts of ,
and . Major rail lines run London to Norwich, London to Cambridge and , and London to Southend with a number of rural branch lines servicing the wider region. A major freight route also runs between the
and London.
has the longest railway platform in the UK - around 620 metres, with
second at 600m. The
was the first to be electrified in the country with
overhead wires, with the first service from Colchester to
in April 1959.
east of Ely at the crossing of the , is the quietest railway station (by passengers) in the UK.
east of Norwich on the Norfolk Broads is the 9th quietest railway station in the UK.
Felixstowe
The East of England has one international
port, , which together with the , the UK's largest container port, and the
container port on the Essex side of the
was developed on the old
site and will have, when fully complete, 6 deep-water berths capable of docking the next generation of ultra large container ships. The
is also located on the , to the west of London Gateway.
The East of England coast also holds a number of traditional fishing ports including the , the
opened in 2010 and along with the
provides support for the
energy industry, including the growing off-shore wind energy sector.
Stansted is 's biggest hub with
The region has four public international airports, ,
(formerly ),
(formerly ) and
(formerly ). It also includes a number of smaller local airfields that are licensed for the public transport of passengers or fo these include , , ,
Luton Airport is the headquarters of . With Luton and Stansted, the region has two of the best, if not the biggest, airline hubs in Europe. Stansted Airport, built in 1991, is the fourth busiest in the UK, with 17m passengers in 2012, and Luton is the fifth busiest with 9m. Stansted has not had any success in attracting long-haul flight routes.
There are around 255,000 at the region's secondary schools. Essex and Southend-on-Sea
have selective schools. In general, the region performs well at GCSE. The region overall has a low
rate. Within the region,
has the highest truancy rate with 6.7% persistent truants, followed by
(Cambridgeshire) with 6.3%.
(Suffolk) has the lowest persistent truancy rate with 2.0%.[]
There are twenty seven FE colleges (FECs) in the region. The largest FE college is . The
regional office is based in , Ipswich, off the A137 next to .
The main university in the region (and also highly important in England generally) is the . The university has been officially rated as the best in the world in 2010. It has the second best medicine course in the world, and in 2010 became the only university outside of the USA to raise over ?1 billion in charitable donations.
There are eight universities in the region. Cambridge hosts two universities: the , which enjoys an international reputation, and , a vibrant, modern university with an impressive range of undergraduate Degrees, Masters and PhD courses (8 subject areas are rated as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' by the government for their research). It is also the home of the 's East of England branch. Norwich also hosts two universities: the
and . There are also other towns and cities in the region which have universities including Bedford and Luton (), Colchester () and Hatfield (). Other higher education centres in the region include ,
For England, the region has the highest proportion of post-graduate students—thanks mainly to those at Cambridge. Of those undergraduate students studying in the region, around 45% are native to the region—most go elsewhere, and the region is a net exporter of students. Around 40% of the region's students are from other regions. The University of Cambridge, due to the high calibre required for entrance, has a mix of students from all over the UK. Around 55% of students in the region come from either the East of England, the South East or London. Very few come from anywhere in the , especially the
(less than 1%—and most of those will be to Cambridge). Only around 3% come from the neighbouring —a much higher proportion of East of England native students go to study in the East Midlands however.
University of Essex near Colchester
The University of Cambridge receives almost three times as much funding as any other university in the region, due to its huge research grant—the largest in England (and the UK). The next largest, by funding, is
in Norwich. The
also have moderately large research grants, but no other universities in the region do. The largest university by student numbers is ARU, and the next biggest is Cambridge. The smallest is Essex.
For total income to universities, Cambridge receives around ?1 billion—around six times larger than any other university in the region. The
receives the least income. Cambridge has the lowest drop-out (discontinuation) rate in the region. Once graduated, over 50% of students stay in the region, with 25% going to London and 10% going to the South East. Very few go elsewhere—especially the North of England.
University of Cambridge
University of East Anglia
University of Essex
University of Hertfordshire
Anglia Ruskin University
University of Bedfordshire
The rules of football were largely drawn up by
in London, also drew up some important rules in 1863, known as the .
is based at , south of Norwich in Norfolk.
is in , west of Norwich.
of Cambridge was the
is off the
in Hertfordshire near . Peterborough has
rowing lake.
broadcast the
across Europe on 648 kHz until 2011.
(NCTJ, important for all journalists) is based near
south of Saffron Walden.
Ltd (Dutch) is near , actually in
in Essex,and prints the
magazines.
have main magazine-printing works next to
and at . Polestar Colchester, off the A123 north of Colchester, formerly printed Nuts, Zoo and Front.
(PDF). Office for National Statistics. .
Home counties#In official use
13 April 2010 at the .
. Go East. Archived from
on 1 November .
. . Archived from
on 16 August .
. . Archived from
on 20 July .
. . 1 March .
. London Gateway 2015.
Jeevan Vasagar. . the Guardian 2015.
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