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| Thetford | |
|---|---|
 King Street, Thetford | |
  Thetford Location withinNorfolk | |
| Area | 29.55 km2 (11.41 sq mi) |
| Population | 25,241 (2021 Census)[1] |
| • Density | 854/km2 (2,210/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TL8783 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | THETFORD |
| Postcode district | IP24 |
| Dialling code | 01842 |
| Police | Norfolk |
| Fire | Norfolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | thetfordtowncouncil.gov.uk |
| 52°25′N0°44′E / 52.41°N 0.74°E /52.41; 0.74 | |
Thetford is amarket town andcivil parish in theBreckland District ofNorfolk, England. It is on theA11 road betweenNorwich and London, just east ofThetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of 29.55 km2 (11.41 sq mi), in 2011 had a population of 24,340.[2]
There has been a settlement at Thetford since theIron Age, and parts of the town predate theNorman Conquest;Thetford Castle was established shortly thereafter.Roger Bigod founded theCluniacPriory of St Mary in 1104, which became the largest and most important religious institution in Thetford. The town was badly hit by theDissolution of the Monasteries, including the castle's destruction, but was rebuilt in 1574 whenElizabeth I established a town charter. AfterWorld War II, Thetford became an "overspill town", taking people from London, as a result of which its population increased substantially.[3]
Thetford railway station is located on theBreckland line and is one of the best surviving pieces of 19th-century railway architecture in East Anglia.
The origin of the name Thetford is unclear. The site was an important crossing of theRiver Little Ouse, so one possibility is that the settlement drew its name from the Anglo-SaxonTheodford orpeople'sford.[4] It is also unclear if the nearbyRiver Thet is named after the crossing or the later settlement.[5]
Breckland was used as an excavation site for flint tools around 2000 BC. During theIron Age, a fort was established onIcknield Way at the site of Thetford Castle.[4] Thetford was an important tribal centre for theIceni during the late Iron Age and early Roman period, withCastle Hill and Gallows Hill being sites of particular note.[6] During the Saxon period it was the principal centre of the eastern Heptarchy and a regular battle site between locals and the Viking invaders.[7]
A mint was built in Thetford in the 9th century.[8] There is evidence of coins minted in Thetford from the time of KingCanute to the reign ofKing John.[9] Amonastery was established around 1020 and agrammar school was operating since before theNorman Conquest of 1066.[4] The town greatly prospered during the reign ofEdward the Confessor (1042–1066), and at one point there were 944 free Burgesses living in Thetford.[7] TheDomesday Book 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.[8] The Book listsWilliam of Bello Fargo as theBishop of Thetford at the time.[10] The bishopric had moved here fromNorth Elmham in 1071 and stayed in Thetford until moving toNorwich in 1096.[4]
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 byRalph Guader, Earl of East Anglia, orRoger Bigod, his successor as Earl, who is known to have orderedBungay andFramlingham castles to have been built in Suffolk. In 1104, Bigod founded theCluniacPriory of St Mary. The priory grew rapidly, with an influx of monks fromLewes, 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.[11]
The Norfolk LentAssizes were held at Thetford from 1264 because there was only one Assize for both Norfolk andSuffolk. 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.[12] In 1373,John of Gaunt, 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.[13]
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Henry VIII sentAnne Boleyn's father,Thomas, 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 theDissolution 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 ofThomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk. In 1574,Elizabeth I 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.[14] 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.[8]
James VI and I 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.[15]
In 1819 there was a local desire to develop Thetford into a spa town modelled onBath,Cheltenham andHarrogate. 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.[16] 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.[17]
DrAllan Glaisyer Minns, born inInagua, theBahamas, became the first black man to become a mayor in Britain when he was elected as Mayor of Thetford in 1904.[18]
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 inWorld War I; 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,[clarification needed] the trial tests of the first tank took place in total secrecy in early 1915.[19] At the end ofWorld War II, Thetford still only had a population of around 5000 people. In the 1950s, the borough council drew up a plan with theLondon County Council to relocate Londoners and several businesses to Thetford and double the population.[8] 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.[20]
Thetford is situated in the south of Norfolk, close to the county boundary with Suffolk. By road it is 33.8 miles (54.4 km) northeast ofCambridge and 30.7 miles (49.4 km) southwest of Norwich. It lies on theRiver Little Ouse. On the western side of Thetford isThetford Forest, which is heavily forested with pine trees. Brettenham Heath National Nature Reserve is to the northeast, near the hamlet ofRoudham.[21] To the southeast of Thetford is Nunnery Lakes Nature Reserve, covering about 200 acres (80 hectares), with breckland heath, woodland, fen and open water habitats and two kilometres (1+1⁄4 mi) of paths.[22]
The Thetford Borough Police Force was established in 1836, and in 1857 the small force joinedNorfolk County Constabulary. Thetford Fire Brigade was established in 1880.[17]
The Thetford Gas Company, founded in 1838, proved very short-lived until Thetford Gasworks opened on Bury Road in 1845.[clarification needed] 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.[17]
Thetford was the headquarters of Tulip International, large-scale manufacturers ofbacon, beef andpork.[23] In March 2007 the factory laid off three quarters of their workforce in Thetford with the loss of 350 jobs,[24] 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 7,367 square metres (79,300 sq ft) of retail floor space. The development was initiated by Stapleford Thetford Ltd. as part of the Thetford-Cambridge-Norwich Technology Corridor.[25] The market is held outsideThetford Guildhall in the town centre on Tuesdays and Saturdays.[26]
TheBritish Trust for Ornithology has its headquarters at The Nunnery in Thetford.[27]
Thetford contains the ruins ofThetford Castle andThetford Priory, which was closed during theReformation. The Grade II listed timber-framedBell 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.[28] TheBlack Horse public house dates from the mid 18th century, and is grade II listed.[29] 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.[30]
TheCharles Burrell Museum opened in 1991 in the former Paint Shop ofCharles Burrell & Sons on Minstergate in Thetford. The museum is dedicated to steam power and steam transport.[31] The Ancient House Museum is situated in an oak-framed Tudor merchant's house on White Hart Street. It contains replicas of theThetford Hoard and has numerous displays about flinting, rabbit warrens and wildlife.[22]The Thetford Academy, Norfolk was established through the merger of Charles Burrell Humanities School and Rosemary Musker High School in September 2010.[32]
The external scenes for the BBC TV seriesDad's Army were filmed in and around the town, with Thetford'sflint buildings doubling forWalmington-on-Sea.[33] TheDad's Army Museum is housed in part ofThetford Guildhall.
Local news and television programmes are provided byBBC East andITV Anglia. Television signals are received from theTacolneston and local relay transmitters.[34]
The town's local radio stations areBBC 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.[35]
The local newspapers are theThetford & Brandon Times and theEastern Daily Press.
The local football club,Thetford Town, plays in theEastern Counties Football League.[36] Thetford Rugby Union Football Club is based on Mundford Road just outside Thetford, with its first team playing in the Eastern Counties London 3.[37]
Thetford Town Cricket Club[38] 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.[39] World champion triathleteChrissie Wellington is a former member of this swimming club.[40]
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.[41]
Thetford railway station is a stop on theBreckland line betweenEly andNorwich.Greater Anglia operates services between Norwich andStansted Airport, viaCambridge;[42]East Midlands Railway runs a route between Norwich andLiverpool Lime Street, viaSheffield andManchester Piccadilly.[43]
The station was opened in 1845.[44] The station building was designed in aNeo-Jacobean 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 beenGrade II listed since 1971.[45] TheThetford to Bury St Edmunds line opened on 1 March 1876 and included a second station in the town,Thetford Bridge. The line closed to passengers in 1953 and goods in 1960.[46][47]
Coach Services are the primary bus operator in Thetford, with services to Bury St Edmunds, King's Lynn, Brandon, Mildenhall and Norwich.[48]
The town sits on the historicturnpike road between London and Norwich, which later became theA11. The first bypass opened in 1968, followed by a second in 1987.[49][50] A high speeddual carriageway link from Thetford towards London opened in December 2014, which removed the remaining 9 miles (14 km) of single carriageway viaElveden.[51] The other main roads through the town are theA134 fromColchester toKing's Lynn,[49] and the A1066 towardsDiss.[52]
TheNational Cycle Route 13 links Thetford toGateley, nearFakenham.[53]
Thetford is twinned with the towns of:[57]
The following people and military units have received theFreedom of the Town of Thetford.
 |
| Climate data forSanton Downham,[a] (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1988–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 16.7 (62.1) | 19.4 (66.9) | 22.6 (72.7) | 28.2 (82.8) | 28.8 (83.8) | 33.0 (91.4) | 33.3 (91.9) | 35.3 (95.5) | 31.7 (89.1) | 29.3 (84.7) | 18.8 (65.8) | 16.0 (60.8) | 35.3 (95.5) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.8 (46.0) | 8.5 (47.3) | 11.2 (52.2) | 14.4 (57.9) | 17.7 (63.9) | 20.4 (68.7) | 22.9 (73.2) | 22.6 (72.7) | 19.5 (67.1) | 15.2 (59.4) | 10.9 (51.6) | 8.0 (46.4) | 14.9 (58.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.3 (39.7) | 4.6 (40.3) | 6.5 (43.7) | 8.8 (47.8) | 11.9 (53.4) | 14.8 (58.6) | 17.1 (62.8) | 16.9 (62.4) | 14.1 (57.4) | 10.7 (51.3) | 7.0 (44.6) | 4.5 (40.1) | 10.1 (50.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 0.8 (33.4) | 0.7 (33.3) | 1.7 (35.1) | 3.2 (37.8) | 6.1 (43.0) | 9.2 (48.6) | 11.3 (52.3) | 11.1 (52.0) | 8.7 (47.7) | 6.1 (43.0) | 3.0 (37.4) | 1.0 (33.8) | 5.3 (41.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −14.5 (5.9) | −14.6 (5.7) | −10.0 (14.0) | −9.7 (14.5) | −5.4 (22.3) | −1.7 (28.9) | 1.6 (34.9) | 0.6 (33.1) | −3.3 (26.1) | −8.7 (16.3) | −8.4 (16.9) | −13.6 (7.5) | −14.6 (5.7) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 54.4 (2.14) | 44.3 (1.74) | 45.5 (1.79) | 40.7 (1.60) | 46.9 (1.85) | 60.1 (2.37) | 58.8 (2.31) | 65.2 (2.57) | 55.1 (2.17) | 67.3 (2.65) | 65.9 (2.59) | 62.1 (2.44) | 666.3 (26.23) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 11.2 | 10.4 | 9.5 | 8.9 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 9.0 | 10.7 | 11.9 | 11.8 | 120.5 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 50.1 | 75.9 | 108.0 | 162.3 | 198.0 | 186.2 | 198.9 | 190.9 | 135.4 | 103.6 | 63.5 | 53.9 | 1,526.7 |
| Source 1:Met Office (precipitation days 1981–2010)[62] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Starlings Roost Weather[63] | |||||||||||||
Citations
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