For some, it is a place to get away from it all and enjoy England at its most elemental.

For others, it is the scene of shared activities like digging holes, making sandcastles and soaking up the sun.

The beach means something different to everybody. And now an anonymous visitor called Man on the Beach is visiting Norfolk and Suffolk's best stretches to ask a single simple question: 'What does the beach mean to you?'

Having spent the last 12 months compiling a video and verbal record of Cornwall's beaches, he has packed his bucket and spade and headed to the East Anglian coast.

In recent days, Man on a Beach has visited 10 Norfolk and 10 Suffolk beaches, where he has filmed scene-setting shots and interviews with visitors.

His www.manonabeach.com website has gained a cult following, particularly from people who live inland and in cities and yearn for regular trips to the beach.

The man behind the initiative said: 'I'm having a fantastic time. I'm absolutely loving it. Man on a Beach acts as a facilitator standing between people enjoying the beach and people living in cities.

'It's highly addictive. I've done 466 interviews since September 18 last year and had at least 350 different answers to the question.'

The Norfolk beaches visited include Burnham Deepdale, Wells, Blakeney, Cley, Sheringham, Cromer, Happisburgh and Great Yarmouth, with Hunstanton and Snettisham to follow soon.

In Suffolk, Man on a Beach has visited Lowestoft, Pakefield, Kessingland, Covehithe, Southwold, Walberswick, Dunwich, Thorpeness, Aldeburgh and Pin Mill.

He added: 'I go to a beautiful place and pass on the enhanced effects of the beach to people who are missing it.

'The beach seems to have a unifying effect. I've always been on the beach. People are always happier there and I wondered why that was. That's why I am doing this.'

He said he did not want to 'personalise' the initiative by giving his own view of what beaches meant. But he said: 'People go to an uncontrollable, chaotic place to be settled.'

And he was effusive in his praise of the beaches has had visited.

'I've been made so welcome in Norfolk and Suffolk. The beauty is stark. You've got really big skies and I love the shingle beaches. At Wells the scale of the beach is extraordinary.'