Having grown up in Norwich, and with family, living more rurally in Norfolk, I would say that the experience of moving into the county and of growing up here, depends immensely on where you choose to live, and the people you mix with.
This is absolutely no different to, for example, living in London. When we were living in a prosperous bubble of East London, oh, oat, milk, cappuccinos, and Fruigi baby wear, it would’ve been very easy for me to choose to believe that East London is a tolerant haven of coexistence, and ignore the clutch of British nationalist party counsellors elected in Barking or the Isis flag raised in Bromley by Bow High Street, just down the road. I suppose the difference is when you’re living in the village or small town, you are much more likely to get to know or at least rub shoulders with people whose views who find disagreeable.
I loved growing up in Norwich. I enjoyed brilliant, cultural experiences, such as the county youth orchestras, art house cinemas, galleries and drama groups. As well as joining friends at regattas beach, houses and riding. I made fantastic friends from diverse backgrounds (my best friend is half Japanese, another is Nigerian by he heritage) and as we got told, we had a fantastic social life and looking back it was pretty idyllic. In fact, I don’t feel it was really in any way dissimilar to the childhood my own children are enjoying now in far more expensive (and much closer to london) Cambridge.
I suspect if I’d grown up poor in a village just outside Dereham, I would be telling you a very different story.
One thing I would say, however, much as we all love Norfolk, very few of my friends have chosen to stay there. Norfolk is isolated, and while it provides good opportunities for children and young adults, the likelihood is they will leave for new opportunities after university and not come back. I know that this has been difficult for many of my friends’ parents who now have children scattered around the country and indeed the world. I imagine this would be much less likely in London or any other metropolitan centre.