Thorpe St Andrew is a town 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

Broadland Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. Its council is based at the Broadland Business Park on the outskirts of Norwich. The district includes the towns of Acle, Aylsham, Reepham, Spro ...

district of

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 situated on the

River Yare The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network. The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the villag ...

, two miles east of the centre of

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 is outside the boundary of the city. The civil parish has an area of and had a population of 14,556 at the 2011 census; this was an increase from the 2001 figure of 13,762. It is the administrative headquarters of the

district council.

History

Thorpe is in 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 ...

, in which it is spelt ‘Torp’, which is a Scandinavian word meaning village (see Thorp). It is thought that the

Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...

were in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

as early as 870 AD and in 1004

Sweyn Sweyn is a Scandinavian masculine given name. Notable people with the surname include: Kings: * Sweyn Forkbeard (960–1014), King of Denmark, England, and Norway as Sweyn I * Sweyn or Svein Knutsson (c. 1016–1035), King of Norway as Sweyn II * S ...

and his ships came up the river to Norwich. There is also evidence that Thorpe was occupied by the Romans with the discovery of various remains. The earliest references found that relate to the parish are under the names of ‘Thorpe Episcopi’ and ‘Thorpe-next-Norwich’. In later years, it has been known as ‘Thorpe St Andrew’. The Norfolk County Asylum was established in the town in May 1814. East Anglia's worst rail crash happened at Thorpe St Andrew in 1874, killing 25 people and injuring 75. Parts of the original town can still be seen along the Yarmouth Road leading out of Norwich. Features here include St Andrew's parish church, the former parish infants school, the Rivergarden public house and the multi-gabled Buck public house.

Facilities

There are numerous leisure facilities, groups and organisations including the County Arts indoor and outdoor bowling club on Plumstead Road, Thorpe Kite Flyers and the Starlight Express Majorettes. Th
Yare Boat Club
is situated on Thorpe Island, opposite the Rivergarden, and offers rowing on the

. The local high school is Thorpe St Andrew High School; it was established in its present form in 1977. The high school is fed by several small primary schools from the local villages along with 3 large primary schools within Thorpe St Andrew. These schools are Dussindale, St Williams and Hillside. In recent years, Thorpe St Andrew has expanded eastwards in the shape of the Dussindale housing development, which includes Dussindale Primary School, which opened in 2007 and Broadland business park. Thorpe St Andrew is home to radio station 99.9 Radio Norwich. The studios are based near Thorpe River Green and the station started broadcasting on 29 June 2006. Thorpe lies on the River Yare which is part of the

Norfolk Broads Norfolk ( ) is a 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 east, Cambridgeshire to the west, a ...

network of navigable rivers. Thorpe Green is on the main Yarmouth Road and gives access to the river with the opposite bank being an island after the creation of the new cut which allowed vessels to make their way to and from the city of Norwich without traversing the town via two low bridges that carry the railway to Yarmouth,

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

and

Sheringham Sheringham (; population 7,367) is a seaside town and civil parish in the county of Norfolk, England.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban District ...

. Once the location of thriving boat yards, Thorpe Island now offers mooring for mainly liveaboard vessels. The only operating boat yards in Thorpe are now towards the east of the town where there are two hire boat operators as well as private facilities and boat building operations. A commemorative

World War One World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...

plaque stands at the River Green war memorial site. It was unveiled on 4 August 2014 by two local schoolchildren, Harry and Aimee Fuller who attended Hillside Avenue Primary School.

Roads

Thorpe St Andrew is bisected by two major roads running from East to West: the A1042 and A1242. The A1242 or Yarmouth Road is part of the old Norwich to

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

road.

Notable people

* Sir George Henry Morse (1857–1931), mountaineer and Lord Mayor of Norwich. *

Peter Trudgill Peter Trudgill, ( ; born 7 November 1943) is an English sociolinguist, academic and author. Biography Trudgill was born in Norwich, England, and grew up in the area of Thorpe St Andrew. He attended the City of Norwich School from 1955. T ...

, one of the pioneers of

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

in Britain, was born and brought up in the area.

Notes

External links

Thorpe St Andrew Town CouncilThorpe Players, Roxley Hall, NorwichThorpe St Andrew Parish Church, Norwich
{{authority control Towns in Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk Broadland