Why are there no islands on Britain’s east coast? Alright, there are - but the Farne Islands and the Isle of Sheppey are hardly in the same league as Orkney and Shetland, the Isles of Scilly, or even the Hebrides.
We’re on a mission to visit the extreme north, south, east, and west points of the UK and now, heading east to Lowestoft Ness, we’re missing out on the excitement of a boat trip!
Musing along those lines, it occurred to me that living in the west and travelling almost directly east, we should, somewhere along the way, be passing close to the centre of the UK. It’s all very well doing these extremities, but shouldn’t we be including that as well?
We encountered a problem immediately! Google offers several definitions for the centre of the UK and, depending which you choose, you could be heading out into the waters of Morecambe Bay, the north Lancashire moors, Haltwhistle in Northumberland, and more – but everybody agrees that the point farthest from the sea in any direction is a few hundred yards east of Church Flatts Farm, in Coton-in-the-Elms, near Burton-on-Trent.
That’s how we found ourselves parked in a narrow lane intently peering over a padlocked gate into a large field of sheep. Well, we couldn’t climb over there, just because the Garmin was telling us it was the furthest point from the sea.
