Thetford is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Breckland District Breckland is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Dereham, although the largest town is Thetford. The district also includes the towns of Attleborough, Swaffham and Watton, along with numerous villages and surr ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. It is on the A11 road between

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2011 had a population of 24,340./ There has been a settlement at Thetford since the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

, and parts of the town predate the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

; Thetford Castle was established shortly thereafter. Roger Bigod founded the

Cluniac Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter, Saints Peter and Saint Paul, Paul. The abbey was constructed ...

Priory of St Mary in 1104, which became the largest and most important religious institution in Thetford. The town was badly hit by the Dissolution of the Monasteries, including the castle's destruction, but was rebuilt in 1574 when

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

established a town charter. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Thetford became an " overspill town", taking people from London, as a result of which its population increased substantially.

Thetford railway station Thetford railway station is on the Breckland line in the east of England, serving the market town of Thetford, Norfolk. The line runs between in the west and in the east. Thetford is situated between and , from London Liverpool Street vi ...

is located on the Breckland line and is one of the best surviving pieces of 19th-century railway architecture in East Anglia.

Name

The origin of the name Thetford is unclear. The site was an important crossing of the River Little Ouse, so one possibility is that the settlement drew its name from the Anglo-Saxon ''Theod''ford or ''people's'' ford. It is also unclear if the nearby River Thet is named after the crossing or the later settlement.

History

Early history

Breckland Breckland in Norfolk and Suffolk is a 39,433 hectare Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. The SPA partly overlaps the 7,544 hectare Breckland Special Area of Conservation. As a la ...

was used as an excavation site for flint tools around 2000 BC. During the

, a fort was established on

Icknield Way The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills. Background It is generally said to be, withi ...

at the site of Thetford Castle. Thetford was an important tribal centre for the

Iceni The Iceni ( , ) or Eceni were an ancient tribe of eastern Britain during the British Iron Age, Iron Age and early Roman Britain, Roman era. Their territory included present-day Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and bordered the ar ...

during the late Iron Age and early Roman period, with Castle Hill and Gallows Hill being sites of particular note. During the Saxon period it was the principal centre of the eastern Heptarchy and a regular battle site between locals and the Viking invaders. A mint was built in Thetford in the 9th century. There is evidence of coins minted in Thetford from the time of King Canute to the reign of King John. A

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

was established around 1020 and a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

was operating since before the

of 1066. The town greatly prospered during the reign of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was King of England from 1042 until his death in 1066. He was the last reigning monarch of the House of Wessex. Edward was the son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy. He succeede ...

(1042–1066), and at one point there were 944 free Burgesses living in Thetford. The

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 estimated the population of Thetford to have grown to between 4000 and 4500 people, which would have been the sixth largest town in Britain at the time. The Book lists William of Bello Fargo as the Bishop of Thetford at the time. The bishopric had moved here from North Elmham in 1071 and stayed in Thetford until moving to

in 1096.

In 1067–1069, Thetford Castle was built on the ruins of an Iron Age fort at Castle Hill. It is believed to have been constructed either by Ralph Guader, Earl of East Anglia, or Roger Bigod, his successor as Earl, who is known to have ordered Bungay and Framlingham castles to have been built in Suffolk. In 1104, Bigod founded the

Priory of St Mary. The priory grew rapidly, with an influx of monks from

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

, and in 1107 it was moved to a larger site on the other side of the river where the ruins remain today. It became the largest and most important religious institution in Thetford. The Norfolk Lent

Assizes The assizes (), or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

were held at Thetford from 1264 because there was only one Assize for both Norfolk and

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. Thetford, being close to the border between the two, was convenient for both. However, after much pressure, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1832 to transfer them to Norwich. In 1373,

John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399), was an English royal prince, military leader and statesman. He was the fourth son (third surviving) of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Because ...

, the Duke of Lancaster, was responsible for altering the administrative makeup of the town, promoting the mayor to its most important official, subjecting the bailiff and the coroner to report to him. Thetford had its own coroner, courts and legal officials, without depending on those for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.

Tudor history to present

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

sent

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the Wives of Henry VIII, second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and execution, by beheading ...

's father,

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, as part of a Commission to assess Thetford in 1527. The Commission concluded that the town had fallen into "great ruin and decay" and that the burgesses of the town had squandered rents and dues which belonged to the King. Thetford was struck hard by the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s and 1540s. A formal complaint was raised by the mayors and burgesses to Thomas Cromwell in 1539, arguing that many of the town's inhabitants would fall into extreme poverty because their livelihoods depended on pilgrims visiting Thetford. Thetford Priory was closed down in 1540 and fell into the possession of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. In 1574,

granted a Charter of Incorporation to the town, setting up a governing body of a mayor, ten burgesses and twenty commoners to meet in the Guildhall and redevelop the town main streets, houses and shops. Elizabeth arrived in Thetford on 27 August 1578 to survey developments, holding a Privy Council meeting at Sir Edward Clere's Place House, now Nunnery Place. A lot of material from the decaying priory and religious buildings in the town were used to save building costs in the building of King's House and other buildings in Thetford.

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 M ...

visited Thetford, and in 1609 bought a house near St Peter's churchyard from Sir William Barwick, still known as the King's House. The house was rebuilt and extended for the king with a "treble roof" of three gables. Charles I granted the house to his Master Falconer, Andrew Pitcairns. In 1819 there was a local desire to develop Thetford into a spa town modelled on

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

and

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

. A pump room was built over the spring at Nuns Bridges and the Thetford Mineral Spring Company was established. The mayor financed a new gravel path along the bank of the Little Ouse, which was named Spring Walk. The plan did not succeed; by 1838 the pump room was closed. In 1835 the old Corporation of Thetford was abolished, and a new one set up a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors. The town was represented by two MPs until 1868 when it lost a seat to Scotland. Dr Allan Glaisyer Minns, born in Inagua, the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

, became the first black man to become a mayor in Britain when he was elected as Mayor of Thetford in 1904. In 1912, more than 30,000 troops participated in military manoeuvres on the heath land outside the town. Over 700 men from the town fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

; a memorial was erected in 1921 with the names of over 100 men who died during the war. Locally in the wooded and sand like areas, the trial tests of the first tank took place in total secrecy in early 1915. At the end of

, Thetford still only had a population of around 5000 people. In the 1950s, the borough council drew up a plan with the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

to relocate Londoners and several businesses to Thetford and double the population. By the late 1980s the population of Thetford had reached around 21,000 people. This meant that Thetford grew faster than any other town in Norfolk.

Geography

Thetford is situated in the south of Norfolk, close to the county boundary with Suffolk. By road it is northeast of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

and southwest of Norwich. It lies on the River Little Ouse. On the western side of Thetford is Thetford Forest, which is heavily forested with pine trees. Brettenham Heath National Nature Reserve is to the northeast, near the hamlet of Roudham. To the southeast of Thetford is Nunnery Lakes Nature Reserve, covering about , with breckland heath, woodland, fen and open water habitats and of paths.

Economy and services

The Thetford Borough Police Force was established in 1836, and in 1857 the small force joined Norfolk County Constabulary. Thetford Fire Brigade was established in 1880. The Thetford Gas Company, founded in 1838, proved very short-lived until Thetford Gasworks opened on Bury Road in 1845. In 1848, gas street lighting was installed in Thetford. From 1877 the town was provided with a clean water supply thanks to a new reservoir and steam engine on Gallows Hill to pump fresh water into the town. In 1929 the Anglian Electricity Supply Company began supplying electricity to the town, which was completed in 1933. Thetford was the headquarters of Tulip International, large-scale manufacturers of

bacon Bacon is a type of Curing (food preservation), salt-cured pork made from various cuts of meat, cuts, typically the pork belly, belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central in ...

, beef and

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...

. In March 2007 the factory laid off three quarters of their workforce in Thetford with the loss of 350 jobs, and the factory later closed in 2010. In January 2018 it was announced that a new retail park and restaurant had been approved on the factory site with over of retail floor space. The development was initiated by Stapleford Thetford Ltd. as part of the Thetford-Cambridge-Norwich Technology Corridor. The market is held outside Thetford Guildhall in the town centre on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The

British Trust for Ornithology The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles. The William, Prince of Wales, Prince of Wales has been patron since October 2020. History Beginning In 1931 Max Nicholson ...

has its headquarters at The Nunnery in Thetford.

Landmarks

Thetford contains the ruins of Thetford Castle and Thetford Priory, which was closed during the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

. The Grade II listed timber-framed Bell Inn in the town was first mentioned in 1493 and was used as a coaching inn on the Norwich-London road until 1845 when it became connected by railway. The

Black Horse Black is a hair coat color of horses in which the entire hair coat is black. It is not uncommon to mistake dark chestnuts or bays for black. Black horses have dark brown eyes, black skin, and wholly black hair coats without any areas of per ...

public house dates from the mid 18th century, and is grade II listed. Thetford Warren Lodge was built in around 1400 by the Prior of Thetford to protect gamekeepers and hunters against poachers, and was later used to harvest rabbits. The Charles Burrell Museum opened in 1991 in the former Paint Shop of Charles Burrell & Sons on Minstergate in Thetford. The museum is dedicated to steam power and steam transport. The Ancient House Museum is situated in an oak-framed Tudor merchant's house on White Hart Street. It contains replicas of the Thetford Hoard and has numerous displays about flinting, rabbit warrens and wildlife. The Thetford Academy, Norfolk was established through the merger of Charles Burrell Humanities School and Rosemary Musker High School in September 2010.

Culture

The external scenes for the BBC TV series ''

Dad's Army ''Dad's Army'' is a British television British sitcom, sitcom about the United Kingdom's Home Guard (United Kingdom), Home Guard during the World War II, Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (TV producer), David Crof ...

'' were filmed in and around the town, with Thetford's

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

buildings doubling for

Walmington-on-Sea Walmington-on-Sea is a fictional seaside resort that is the setting of ''Dad's Army'' during the Second World War, including the BBC Television sitcom (1968-1977), the BBC Radio 4 series and two feature films (1971 and 2016). Walmington-on-Sea i ...

. The Dad's Army Museum is housed in part of Thetford Guildhall.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and

ITV Anglia ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

. Television signals are received from the Tacolneston and local relay transmitters. The town's local radio stations are BBC Radio Norfolk on 104.4 FM, Greatest Hits Radio Norfolk & North Suffolk on 96.7 FM, Heart East on 102.4 FM, and Thetford Radio, a community radio station. The local newspapers are the ''Thetford & Brandon Times'' and the ''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to ...

''.

Sport

The local football club, Thetford Town, plays in the

Eastern Counties Football League The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suffolk ...

. Thetford Rugby Union Football Club is based on Mundford Road just outside Thetford, with its first team playing in the Eastern Counties London 3. Thetford Town Cricket Club have two adult teams competing in the Norfolk Cricket Alliance and one in the Norfolk Friendly Alliance. The club also has a junior section. A swimming team called the Thetford Dolphins is based at Breckland Leisure Centre's Waterworld swimming pools. World champion triathlete Chrissie Wellington is a former member of this swimming club. Thetford Golf Club, to the northwest of the town in Thetford Forest Park, was established in 1912 with a course originally designed by Charles H. Mayo, and later alterations by James Braid and Philip Mackenzie Ross. The construction of the second Thetford bypass resulted in five of the course holes being lost and having to be re-fashioned by Cameron Sinclair and Donald Steel.

Transport

is a stop on the Breckland line between and . Greater Anglia operates services between Norwich and , via ;

East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

runs a route between Norwich and , via and . The station was opened in 1845. The station building was designed in a

Neo-Jacobean The Jacobethan ( ) architectural style, also known as Jacobean Revival, is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the Engli ...

style and constructed using local Breckland flint; it was extended in 1889. It has one of the best preserved set of railway buildings in East Anglia, retaining nine separate buildings that have survived from the nineteenth century, and has been

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed since 1971. The Thetford to Bury St Edmunds line opened on 1 March 1876 and included a second station in the town, . The line closed to passengers in 1953 and goods in 1960. Coach Services are the primary bus operator in Thetford, with services to Bury St Edmunds, King's Lynn, Brandon, Mildenhall and Norwich. The town sits on the historic turnpike road between London and Norwich, which later became the A11. The first bypass opened in 1968, followed by a second in 1987. A high speed dual carriageway link from Thetford towards London opened in December 2014, which removed the remaining of single carriageway via Elveden. The other main roads through the town are the A134 from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

, and the A1066 towards Diss. The National Cycle Route 13 links Thetford to Gateley, near

Fakenham Fakenham is a market town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It is situated on the River Wensum, about north-west of Norwich. The town is at the junction of several local roads, including the A148 from King's Lynn to Cromer, the A1067 to N ...

Notable people

* Theodosia Ann Dean (1819–1843), missionary; was born in the town * Terry Jermy (born 1985), Labour politician; was born in the town of which he became Mayor in 2016, and which he represents as MP for South West Norfolk. * Allan Glaisyer Minns (1858–1930), Doctor and the first black man to become a mayor in Britain, was mayor of Thetford * Allan Noel Minns (1891–1921), latter's son, Doctor and one of first British Army officers of Afro-Caribbean descent to serve in World War I; buried in Thetford Cemetery. *

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...

(1737–1809), political radical, involved in both the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

and the French Revolution, was born in the town. *

Duleep Singh Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh (6 September 1838 – 22 October 1893), also spelled Dalip Singh, and later in life nicknamed the "Black Prince of Perthshire", was the last ''Maharaja'' of the Sikh Empire. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's youngest son ...

(1838–1893), last Maharaja of the Punjab, lived part of his exile at nearby Elveden. An equestrian statue of the Maharaja was unveiled in 1999 at Butten Island in the town, which benefited from his and his sons' generosity.Royal tribute to first Sikh settler
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 29 July 1999.

Twin towns

Thetford is twinned with the towns of: *

Hürth Hürth () is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hürth shares borders with the city of Cologne and is about 6 km to the southwest of Cologne city centre, at the northeastern slope of the natural preserve Natur ...

, near Cologne, Germany *

Skawina Skawina is a town in southern Poland with 27,328 inhabitants (2008). Situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Kraków Voivodeship (1975–1998), Kraków Voivodeship (1975–1998). The town is located on the Skawinka ri ...

, near Kraków, Poland * Nissewaard, near Rotterdam, Netherlands *

Les Ulis Les Ulis () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department, from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris, France. A planned community, it comprises outer suburbs (banlieues) built in the 1970s on the southwestern ...

, near Paris, France

Freedom of the Town

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Thetford.

Individuals

* William Ellis Clarke: 1973. * David Osborne: 14 September 2019. Town Historian

Military units

* RAF Honington on 9 June 2019.

Climate

Notes

References

Citations Sources * * *

External links

Information from Genuki Norfolk
on Thetford.
History of Thetford by age
{{authority control Breckland District Market towns in Norfolk Towns in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk