Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Thetford

  • Thetford – Spring Walk

    Just a short walk from Thetford town centre is this interesting and peaceful riverside path, known as Spring Walk. It takes this name from when the walk was laid out as part of a project to make Thetford a spring, or spa, town. This effort wasn’t really successful, lasting for under twenty years, but this path is one legacy of the project.

    One of the interesting heritage walk boards which have been placed around the town, giving more information about the history of the spa town project.

    There is some sad history to this location though, as in September 1911 a 13-year old boy, Arthur Robert Tuck, fell into river at this point. Arthur died from drowning, but the inquest noted with “astonishment at the action of three unknown men who were told of a lad falling into the water just after the accident, but they walked away”. The boy lived on Old Market Street and sadly drowned in just five feet of water.

    The local newspaper, the Bury Free Press, reported that:

    “The funeral of the deceased took part with five of his companions acting as bearers”.

    I’m not sure we’ll ever know who those five were, but I do wonder if any of those fought and died in World War One.

    Above is the census record which was taken just a few months before the boy died, with Arthur Robert Tuck having exactly the same name as his father. His mother was Bessie Tuck and he had two sisters, Gertrude Tuck and Mabel Gladys Tuck, as well as a brother, Charles Bertram Tuck.

  • Thetford – Tank Track Marks on Bridge

    I would have never noticed this, but there’s a wonderful Heritage Trail board nearby which explained what these marks are. They’re from a tank which drove down here, which is Nuns’ Bridges Road, during the Second World War. I can imagine the concern of the tank driver when he realised that his vehicle had damaged the bridge and perhaps threatened to knock the entire wall down into the stream below.

  • Thetford – Thetford Priory (Gatehouse)

    I’ve never visited this gatehouse before, which is accessed from the main priory site by using a path across a private garden. I was having a little rummage about the area ready for my heritage walk this weekend and was surprised at just how impressive this gatehouse is. The above photo is taken from the priory side of the gatehouse, so it was the other side which would be visible to the townspeople.

    The gatehouse is the best preserved of any of the priory buildings and was first constructed in the late fourteenth century. It is well built and that is at least evident by the fact that it hasn’t fallen down over the centuries. Any travellers visiting the priory, or indeed anyone wanting food, would have knocked on the door of this gatehouse to ask for assistance.

  • Thetford – Thetford Railway Station (1845)

    This illustration in the Illustrated London News is of Thetford railway station, just after it had opened in 1845. There must have been a lot of excitement about the increasing possibilities of rail travel which were opening up, a golden age…..

  • Thetford – Thetford Railway Station

    Thetford railway station is an attractive flint-faced building which opened to passengers in July 1845. It expanded throughout the late nineteenth century due to the increasing volumes of passengers and it remained a junction station until in 1953 when the line from Thetford to Bury St. Edmunds closed.

    The listed building register notes just how important the building is in terms of its heritage:

    “There are numerous stations throughout the country that retain three building types but only approximately forty in which a group of four or more types survive. Thetford retains nine, including the loading gauge which would once have been a familiar feature in all country stations but is now an increasingly rare element. Very few stations have survived with this number of buildings, and Thetford thus provides an almost complete picture of an early station that continued to evolve throughout the second half of the C19”.

    The main station building isn’t currently in great shape, and most of it isn’t used, but there is an on-going restoration work to protect the fabric of the structure. There are longer term plans to open the former station building back up, which would give a better first impression than its current boarded up state.

    Looking down onto the tracks in the direction of Norwich railway station. The track curves off to the left at the end of this photo, with the old line to Bury St. Edmunds once going off the right. It was unfortunate that the line between the two towns closed, as it might have been viable to connect the towns via a circular route, as it’s not as easy as it perhaps should be to connect from Thetford to Bury St. Edmunds by public transport.

  • Thetford – 27 White Hart Street (King’s Head Inn)

    The King’s Head Inn on White Hart Street has been trading since the eighteenth century, although the frontage was modified in 1878. The building to the right of the former entrance to the stabling area has also long since become a separate property.

    The pub is currently closed and CAMRA still report it as being operated by Heineken, although it’s possible that they’ve sold it off. I certainly hope that Heineken aren’t currently involved with the pub, since in recent years some of the outbuildings have collapsed and the police discovered a substantial cannabis factory operating within the closed pub.

    The 1939 register which covers the pub, showing that there were six people living at the property. The details of one are redacted, but the others are Bertram Morley, John Fletcher, Audrey Grave, Rebecca Grave and Sidney Grave. It’s the latter who is listed as the victualler, or landlord, and he remained at the pub until 1950.

    There is currently a planning permission application for this building, with a proposal to turn the top floors into three flats. Fortunately, there are plans to keep the pub element on the ground floor trading, a plan which I hope comes to pass.

  • Thetford – 18 White Hart Street

    This property on White Hart Street would have been next to a functioning theatre when it was built in the early part of the nineteenth century. Other than knowing it has two storeys I’ve managed to find out nearly nothing about this property, other than it was used by a solicitors for some time. It doesn’t appear on numerous census returns, so perhaps it was just used as offices.

  • Thetford – 14 White Hart Street

    Looking at the listed buildings register it appears that the majority of properties along White Hart Street are listed, with many having long and complex histories.

    Number 14 is now in use as a nursery, but the building itself dates back in part to at least the eighteenth century. It was in use as a theatre and shop until 1833 and the building is still known as Theatre House. After it fell out of use as a theatre it was converted into two houses and a shop, before being converted into offices during the late twentieth century.

    The left half of the property has retained its eighteenth century shopfront and the display window is original, with its four rows of four panes. Unfortunately, some recent work at the property has discovered that the theatre element at the rear of the structure is no longer present, as it was demolished in 1833.

    A history of the town published in the Norfolk News in 1896 gives the name of the theatre, which was thoughtfully called the Thetford Theatre. The authors of the article claim that it was at its height of popularity in 1830 and was “in old times visited by good companies of actors”. A book of the time mentions that the popularity of the theatre diminished in 1833 when the assizes moved to Norwich. I’m not quite sure that I understand the link there, as would a court really generate that much trade for a theatre?

    The theatre did get a fair bit of publicity when in 1808 one of the audience decided it would be a marvellous idea to throw a stone from the gallery. This hit a gentleman in the pit and caused some pain, but efforts made by Mr. Fisher, the theatre manager, to find the culprit were unsuccessful.

    In 1939 the shop here was a fishmongers and fruit shop, operated by Alfred Barnett, who was also one of the town’s ARP wardens.

  • Thetford – Oddfellows Hall

    The Odd Fellows were craftsmen who didn’t fit into the usual trades, so they weren’t part of a guild. Well, that’s probably how they were formed, some historians seem to argue a bit with that and much is lost to history unfortunately.

    The hall in Thetford was constructed in 1891 and more recently from 1985 until 2017 it was used as a snooker hall. The building was used for theatrical purposes from shortly after its opening and was being used as a cinema by the First World War.

    Oswald Mosley spoke at the hall on Saturday 7 September 1935 in a meeting organised by the South West Norfolk Fascist Constituency Association, with tickets being free of charge.

    The building is currently being sold for £350,000, which seems a little on the low side, and hopefully it won’t be turned into housing. There is perhaps a better use for the building than that, something which ensures that the public can still gain access to this interesting structure.

  • Thetford – Thomas Paine Statue

    Thomas Paine is one of the best known sons of Thetford having been born in the town on 9 February 1737. He was educated at Thetford Grammar School and for a while lived in Lewes. He sailed to the United States in 1774, nearly dying with illness during the journey. He became involved in the American War of Independence and wrote numerous books and pamphlets about the political situation in the country. Later known as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, although he wasn’t directly involved with the establishment of the new American Government.

    A meeting took place at Thetford Guildhall in February 1937, marking 200 years since Paine was born. Sir William Gentle, the Mayor of Thetford, made a speech and said:

    “It is appropriate that the people of Thetford should assemble in their guildhall tonight in these days when democratic government is once more in danger, when according to General Goering, its foundations are on sand”.

    The town’s statue of Thomas Paine dates from later on, designed by Charles Wheeler and unveiled in 1964. I hadn’t previously noticed this, but the book in the sculpture is upside down, apparently as a way of getting people talking about the new artwork in the town.