How Norfolk fares in the league tables
Top of the league
It seems there are league tables for everything these days . . . and here’s how Norfolk fares in a top 10 of them.
When it comes to league tables, everyone wants to be in the Top 10 . . . of the best ones that is!
Norwich, is now widely regarded as one of the best shopping destination in the UK. The city was named the ninth in the table of 10 by the Venuescore survey by retail experts the Javelin Group, finishing above London’s Oxford Street and Cardiff, and just behind Glasgow, Manchester and Edinburgh. And that could be why our fine city has just been ranked sixth in the country for the number of people coming for day trips. With a number of stately homes across Norfolk, it is no surprise they feature highly in league tables. Blickling Hall is always high on the National Trust best-attended list, as well as being regarded as one of the most haunted places in Britain, with the ghost of Anne Boleyn said to stalk its corridors. Meanwhile Sandringham features in VisitBritain’s top 10 most popular Royal attractions. house, gardens and museum are open to the public from April to November. Norfolk is officially the safest county in England, according to Home Office figures out this year. Norwich was voted in the Top 10 Happiest Places to Live in the UK, one of only two southern cities to make the grade in a league table dominated by jolly northerners! With Norfolk’s coastline such an important part of county life, it’s no surprise that our beaches attract attention – few more so than Holkham Beach. Widely regarded as one of the best in Britain, it gained global attention for being in the final shot of Shakespeare in Love and is always high on the regular lists of most popular or most beautiful beaches. The Norfolk Coast Path has been voted the Best Coastal Path Trail in the UK, and the north Norfolk coast is widely regarded as one of the best spots in the country for birdwatching. Many of our top attractions, hotels and restaurants feature not only in official top 10s and best-of lists, but also in notable recommendations – from Bewilderwood rated as "one of the 50 most fabulous things to do in the world" to Wiveton Hall Cafe, highlighted by no less than Delia Smith for serving "Britain’s best food". Take a look at our travel section this month for some of the award-winning places to stay.And Norfolk also does well in some of the less prominent and less glamorous league tables too: There must be something in the grass as fourth-generation Norfolk dairy farmer Jonathan Wyatt has seen his herd of Dairy Shorthorns recently top the national league table for milk production. Jonathan from Grange Farm, Snetterton, says the secret of the success is in treating all the cows in the 150-strong milking herd as "a princess." In 2005, Norwich was regarded as the eBay capital of the UK with more than 40pc of the city’s population registered on the online marketplace, though in the years since, the East Midlands has taken that crown.
