Thetford is a market town in the Brecklands of Norfolk, tucked among one of the largest lowland pine forests in Britain. The land around here is as flat as Norfolk gets, but Thetford Forest gives the place a quiet, sheltered character quite unlike the open skies of the coast — and the town itself carries more history than you'd expect for somewhere this size.
In the early medieval period Thetford was one of the most important settlements in eastern England, serving as the seat of the kings of East Anglia and later the location of a cathedral. The Normans built a castle here whose earthen motte still rises dramatically above the town, and they also founded Thetford Priory, a Cluniac monastery whose ruined arches now stand freely in a meadow by the river. Several other priories once crowded this small town — Thetford was genuinely prosperous, until the Dissolution stripped it bare.
The town's most famous son is Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense and The Rights of Man, born here in 1737. A gilded bronze statue of him stands on King Street, looking rather too radical for the conservative English market town he came from. The Ancient House Museum nearby tells his story alongside the history of the Brecks. Further out of town, Grime's Graves is one of the most extraordinary prehistoric sites in England — a vast Neolithic flint mine complex where you can descend into a 4,000-year-old shaft.
Thetford Forest, managed by Forestry England, wraps around the western and northern edges of town. There are hundreds of kilometres of walking and cycling trails, red squirrels in the quieter corners, and almost no hills. If the Dad's Army Museum — housed in a former army barracks where the BBC filmed much of the TV series — seems an unlikely draw, it is surprisingly engaging, especially for anyone who grew up watching the programme.