THETFORD  ,. a

market town and municipal borough of England, mostly in the south-western parliamentary division of Norfolk, but partly in the Stowmarket division of Suffolk, 9 ! M . N.N.E. from London by the Great Eastern railway . Pop . (1901) 4613 . The town lies in a level, fertile country at the junction of the river Thet with the Little Ouse . In the time of Edward III. the town had twenty churches and eight monasteries There are now three churches—St Peter's, St Cuthbert's and St Mary's—principally of Perpendicular flint work; of these St Mary's, on the Suffolk side, is the largest . There are a few monastic. remains, the chief being two gate-houses . The most important relic of antiquity is the Castle Hill, a mound moo ft. in circumference and moo ft. in height . The grammar school was founded in i6ro . In King Street is the mansion-house occupied as a hunting-lodge by Queen Elizabeth and James I . The chief public buildings are a gild hall and a mechanics' institute; there are several charities .

Brewing and tanning are carried on; and there are also manure and chemical works, brick- and lime-kilns, flour-mills and agricultural implement works, engineering works and iron foundries . The Little Ouse is navigable for barges down to the Great Ouse . Thetford is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of Norwich . The town is governed by . 'a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors . Area, 7096 acres . Early antiquaries identified Thetford (Theodford, Tetford, Tefford) with Sitomagus, but modern research shows that there is no conclusive evidence of a permanent settlement before the coming of the Angles . Tradition tells that Uffa, who probably threw up the earthworks called the Castle Hill, established the capital of East Anglia here about 575 . Thetford owned a royal mint in the 9th century and was a flourishing town when the Conqueror acquired it . Richard I. granted it to Hamelin, Earl Warenne, and when his heirs failed, it merged in the duchy of Lancaster and so in the crown . About 'no its principal officers were a mayor and coroner, afterwards assisted by eight burgesses, whom Henry VIII. increased to ten . The town, never very prosperous since the Conquest, had then fallen into great decay, but the petitions of the burgesses for a charter were not heeded till 1573 when Elizabeth incorporated it under a mayor and common council .

This charter, restored in 1692 after its surrender to

Charles II., remained in force till 1835 when the borough was re-constituted . Thetford returned two members to parliament from 1529 till its disfranchisement in 1868 . Its Saturday market, which certainly existed in the 13th century, was granted by the charter of 1573 and also a Magdalen fair (the 22nd of July) . Fisheries were important in the 13th century . See A . L . Hunt, Capital of East Anglia (187o) ; T . Martin, History of Thetford (1779) .