English county's a state (4)

I believe the answer is:

iowa

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'state' is the definition.
(I know that Iowa is a state)

'english county's a' is the wordplay.
'english county's' becomes 'iow' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'iow'+'a'='IOWA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for iowa that I've seen before include "Midwest US state" , "State of USA" , "part of United States" , "'Hawkeye State'" , "Central US state" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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