From a Clacton point of view, the increased workload was caused by the traffic avoiding weather between COA and LOGAN. This traffic was turning right towards REDFA then skirting the buildups before turning back towards the CLN/LOGAN/BPK direction.
They would then be head on to departures via BPK/CLN heading East with no wx problems (like you I guess). Although we regularly manage to cope with head on conflict areas, the unpredictable requests for avoidance means level separation is better than lateral using headings: vertical separation = monitoring Mode C = increase workload - MDIs were used to reduce bunching of departures and minimise the likelihood of a/c from LL, KK, SS, GW etc all arriving at the same time at CLN, requiring headings.
Unfortunately you were penalised for others bad fortune!