I spent a rainy July week in Thetford, a small town on the edge of the Fen in East Anglia, located about ninety miles from London halfway between Cambridge and Norwich on the quite narrow and heavily congested A11. The terrain around Thetford is relatively flat and heavily forested. Most of these forests are the remnants of leafy deciduous trees which presumably covered much of the island of Britain in prehistory, although the land clearing and farming efforts of more than two thousand years of civilization have definitely thinned their numbers. But Thetford is also next to the aptly named Thetford Forest, which consists of pine trees that were planted after the First World War to offset a shortage of timber resources. This relatively young forest seems like a piece of Washington or Oregon set amongst the grassy fens and sprawling suburban development that surrounds it.
Thetford is actually one of the oldest settled places in Britain, as indicated by a large grassy mount outside the town center, the remnants of an Iron Age fortification that might have been a stronghold for the first century Celtic queen Boudica when she led a shortlived revolt that destroyed the relatively young Roman cities of Londinium (London) and Camulodunum (Colchester) in 61 A.D. This community was not an actual city during the four centuries of Roman rule, but must have been an important enough site in the late Roman period to generate considerable wealth, based on the finding of a stash of elaborate fourth century Romano-Briton jewelry in 1979. By the ninth century, Thetford was one of the largest towns in Anglo-Saxon England, since it was the seat of the East Anglian rulers and an important ford across the Little Ouse River (the people's ford, since Thet is a derivative of the Old English word theod for people). Consequently, Thetford was subject to periodic Viking raids in the ninth and tenth centuries and eventually became a winter camp in 869. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Thetford became an important monastic center, with the founding of the elaborate Thetford Priory, which was largely abandoned and left to deteriorate following Henry VIII's dissolution of the Roman Catholic church in 1536. Thetford was also the birthplace of Thomas Paine (1737-1808), a prominent figure in the American Revolution, known for his pamphlet entitled Common Sense. Today, Thetford is a thriving small town located on the edge of the Fen within commuting distance of the American bases at Lakenheath and Mildenhall, but it is far enough from major urban centers like London or Norwich to retain its sense of being a provincial town with a long history. Below are some pictures I took while in Thetford.
This is the main approach to the Thetford Town Centre coming from Bridge Street. The more direct approaches to town from the main highway were blocked to discourage drivers from overwhelming the small High Street. The Bell Inn, located in a heavily restored fifteenth century structure, is supposed to be haunted by a sixteenth century monk and a nineteenth century hotel maid.
Here is an aging cemetery next to the stone parish church. Although these grave sites are more than a century old in their own right, they are recent additions compared to the Iron Age hillfort on the edge of town and the remains of the twelfth and thirteenth century Thetford Priory.
This is a collection of Roman table wares that were found in the local area, and that are now displayed in the Ancient House Museum.
This bridge is one of the aging Three Nuns Bridges over the Little Ouse.
This arch is one of the more intact parts of the Thetford Priory, which was abandoned and ransacked during the sixteenth century.
This metal statue depicts Thomas Paine, a prominent figure during both the American and French Revolutions.
