500 BC 1st Phase of building on Castle site. This may have been occupied
until 1st C. AD. The Iceni built a hill fort beside
fording points across the Thet and Little Ouse rivers to guard the river crossings and
converging trackways.
390 AD Saxons arrive in Thetford.
869 Thetford was largely an agricultural area until the rapid expansion of a flourishing
Saxon town. Thetford is mentioned
in the Anglo – Saxon chronicle, when a Viking Army is supposed to have wintered here.
1004 & 1010 Vikings sack Thetford. A major trading, commercial, industrial and
political centre with many churches (at least 14), religious houses and a mint.
1016-35 Accession and reign of King Cnut. The Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds founded a daughter
house in Thetford, endowed with church.
1030 St. Martin’s stone house built at this town.
1040 Thetford has a population of approx. 4000, second in importance to Norwich.
1066 Norman invasion and Battle of Hastings. After the conquest Thetford was briefly the
see of the bishops of East Anglia
(before Norwich) whilst a large mott and bailey was built within the iron age hill fort.
Its decline in size and prosperity
began at this time and continued throughout the middle ages. Population 4,500.
1070 Norman King William I replaced Saxon bishop Aethelmar with Norman bishop Herfast. A
Great accumulator of lands and wealth, with ambitions to take over the wealthy Bury Abbey.
1071 Bishop Herfast moved his cathedral from the Saxon ‘merely wooden’ rural
cathedral at Elmham to urban Thetford, taking over Great St. Mary’s church, elevating
it to cathedral status and presumably rebuilding/embellishing the building of what was
possibly already an important minister church with four subordinate churches in the area.
1081 Herfast loses quarrel with the abbot over jurisdiction of Bury Abbey. William I
grants powers and control over lands
bordering Thetford to Bury, weakening Thetford’s influence.
1084 Herfast dies. 2nd Norman Bishop William Beaufo succeeds with many manors attached to
the seat, courtesy of Herfast’s steady work.
1086 Population drops to 3,500.
1091 William Beaufo dies, and De Losinga buys See from Ranulf Flambard for 1900 L
(Simony).
1094 Bishop Herbert de Losinga moves his cathedral to Norwich, which is by now a much more
prosperous and important town than the rapidly declining Thetford. The cathedral at Great
St. Mary is now redundant.
1104 Foundation of the Cluniac priory of St. Mary, incorporating Great St. Mary’s
church.
1107 New Cluniac priory church started on new site North of the river because the Cluniacs
have outgrown their initial site.
Foundation stone laid by Roger Bigod who died in the following week.
1114 Dedication of the new Cluniac priory and consecration of new churchyard by the
Bishop. Monks move to new site, leaving Great St. Mary’s redundant once more as the
pastoral church is still the adjacent Holy Trinity.
1335 Site of Great St. Mary’s was given to Dominican Friars.
1536 Dissolution of the Monasteries.
1566 Sir Richard Fulmerston made provision for the re-founding of the school. Population
less than 1,500.
Late 1700s New industries were developed: paper, agricultural engineering, malting and
fertiliser production.
1800s A seriously over populated, unhealthy town. Many severe epidemics. Central
government had to intervene. Local government inadequate (although democratically elected
after 1835)
After 1st World War Serious unemployment and social and economical stress.
1930’s Badly depressed town.
1950s Thetford became an overspill for London and grew rapidly as a result of this.
1970s The fastest growing town in Britain, leading to more social difficulties.