5 Signs of change appear in the founding of English journals called Northern History (1966), Midland History (1971), and Southern History (1979). But few articles in these journals are truly regional in nature; most run to national or local history. Even the manifestos that called these journals into being were reluctant to make strong claims for regional history. One called it “provincial history,” and argued that it should be “outward looking” rather than “inward looking” (see Asa Briggs, “Themes in Northern History,” NH I (1966)). Only in the 1980s did the number of genuinely regional essays increase.
   Other harbingers of change are centers for regional history at the universities of East Anglia, Exeter and Leeds. But again much of their work is not regional but local or national in its conception. The oldest and strongest of these centers is the Centre of East Anglian Studies at the University of East Anglia. But comparatively little of its research is devoted to the region as a unit. The largest project under way at the Centre of East Anglian studies is a building survey of Norwich—a very useful project, but not an exercise in regional history. See Janice Henney, ed., East Anglian Studies: Theses Completed (Norwich, 1982).
   Still, the important beginnings have been made. A new series of monographs on English regional history began to appear in 1986—another sign of growing interest in this field.