Thetford
From Free net encyclopedia
- Thetford is also the name of a town in Vermont, United States.
Template:GBmap Thetford, England is a town (population 21588Template:Ref) in the Breckland area of Norfolk, England. A small market town, Thetford has many picturesque buildings built in the local flint stone. In recent years (since 2001) it has become home to a substantial Portuguese immigrant population.
In the Anglo-Saxon period, it was the home of the monarchs of East Anglia and was seat of a bishopric. Castle Hill is the highest Norman motte in England though no trace remains of the castle which once surmounted it, The mound (motte) is open to the public, and provides an excellent view of the town from its summit or the extensive earthworks. It is situated in a public park, near the Three Nuns Bridges and close to the town centre overlooking the rivers.
Thetford contains a ruined Cluniac priory which dates from the 12th century and whose remains are open to the public. The Priory was closed in the Reformation. It is reputedly haunted and was the subject of an episode of the television series Ghosthunters, another episode of which featured the alleged haunting of the Bell Inn also in Thetford. Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and other early Tudor Dynasty officials were once buried here before their removal to Framlingham.
In the eighteenth century the town was the birthplace of famous radical Thomas Paine, a statue of him stands in King Street in Thetford, Norfolk: his place of birth; the statue holds a quill and his book, The Rights of Man; the book is upside down.
Today, the surrounding Breckland has been largely replaced by the Thetford Forest though Thetford Chase remains. Lots of good pubs in thetford, just watch out for the foreigners.
Thetford is on the A11 road between Norwich and London and is served by Thetford railway station, served by the oddly named One (railway) running services between Norwich and Cambridge, and by Central Trains, running services from Norwich to Liverpool via either Sheffield and Manchester or Birmingham and Manchester. From Cambridge, regular services run to London King's Cross.
References
- Template:Note Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council, 2001. "Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes."