Thetford

Thetford originally grew up due to its strategic location at the point where the River Thet and River Little Ouse joined and the Icknield Way crossed. In its heyday, during the 14th Century, it boosted twenty parish churches and four monasteries. It is also possible that Thetford was the site of Boudica's Palace which may have been located at Gallows Hill - just north of the town.

Today it is an industrialised town lying in the heart of the Brecklands. It is probably best known for providing many of the locations for Dad's Army - the much-loved TV sitcom, but it was also the home of the famous radical writer Thomas Paine.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

It is likely that Thomas Paine was born in a room in, what is now, The Thomas Paine Hotel in White Hart Street. He was educated at Thetford Grammar School and then became an excise man. However, he was soon dismissed for seeking a pay rise.

Paine emigrated to America in 1774 and two years later published Common Sense - a demand for American independence. He returned to England in 1787 and published The Rights of Man in response to Burke's criticism of the French Revolution. In 1792 Paine fled to France - where he became a member of the Convention. He was imprisoned in 1794 and completed The Age of Reason while under threat of execution. In 1802 he returned to American but his political radicalism and atheism made him an outcast. He died in America.

In a strange twist - William Cobbett (the author of Rural Rides and an early opponent of Paine) had his bones dug up and brought back to England in order to create a proper memorial for him. However, he mislaid them and so Paine he has no known resting place. Lord Byron wrote the following satirical poem about this episode.
 

The Thomas Paine Society exists to further interest in the man and his works.

Statue of Thomas Paine

Thetford Grammar School

Thomas Paine

George Bloomfield was the elder brother of the 'peasant poet' Robert Bloomfield (author of The Farmer's Boy) and was born just over the Suffolk border in Honingham and wrote the following poem about the town.

However, it is hard to reconcile this picture of a rural idyll with the Thetford of today - which is a modern, industrialised over-flow town. However, the centre of the town still has a number of medieval and Georgian houses and the 'silv'ry Ouse' still flows peacefully through it - even if there is the odd submerged supermarket trolley visible.
 

The poets, one and all, were wont to choose
Some fabled, fav'rite Goddess, as their muse.
But gratitude alone my mind inspires,
No other Muse my simple pen requires.
When erst in youth's gay prime and uncontrolled
O Thetford! round thy flow'ry fields I've strolled,
From Tutt-Hill's eminence and Croxton's height,
Have view'd thine ancient ruins with delight,
Thy sloping hills and wooded vallies gay,
Whose silv'ry Ouse meand'ring winds his way.

See complete poem

Links:

Explore Thetford