Looking At Thetford Afresh

As so often happens, this column originated from a fairly mundane conversation – on this occasion with my wife. Disturbed from messing about on my phone my response to the bald statement, “You need a project!” was a non-committal grunt and hasty descent back into a West Ham Twitter wormhole. Mrs F, as is usually the case, was right – and after some consideration, as well as agreeing the Hammers manager David Moyes should definitely drop Said Benrahma for Manuel Lanzini out on our left, the decision was made that, as a fairly new resident of Thetford a really good way of getting to know our lovely town would be to combine passions and walk every street before blogging the results.

History is not a strong suit, so books were bought and chapters devoured. Another conversation followed, this time with a fellow sufferer in the claret and blue and not only an agreement of the thorny left-side issue at the London Stadium but the news I was becoming “A flaneur”. “Ha ha”, I replied, “I suppose I am...” Both at the time and now with further consideration I reckon that was a pretty good ploy to cover up the fact I had not a clue what a flaneur was or did. After a brief flick through my Chambers Dictionary, then a longer browse in Wikipedia it became clear that no, a flaneur has nothing to do with a face cloth, but is a French term (quelle surprise!) that literally means ‘stroller’ or ‘saunterer’ and referred to an “Ambivalent figure of urban affluence... detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of contemporary life.” A quick dissection would reveal some truth to this description, in my case, even if nobody who has met me would ever describe me as a “gentleman”. As to ambivalence, I offer a meaty ‘Hell yeah!’ Urban yes, if not urbane... and affluent probably, I am still in possession of all my own teeth! ‘Detached from society’ is a sad reality for far too many of us suffering the financial and emotional scars of Covid lockdown. As to ‘acute’ or ‘observer of contemporary life’ I’ll let others be the judge –but here are a couple of early impressions: Firstly, an apology... Having lived all my adult life in or around Bury St Edmunds I was completely immersed in the popular view Thetford is an awful place, second only to “That London” in terms of disrepair and social decay. Having now lived here over a year I could not have been more wrong. The town has so many pretty walks, and is inhabited by more than its fair share of lively and friendly residents. Secondly, there are lot of trees about aren’t there? A favourite hobby is huffing up the 90 steps of the castle (believe me, I count them every single time) and admiring the view, over 180 degrees of which is forest. More on that as we go on... In conclusion, my lovely wife was right, I really should spend more time out and about and fewer hours gazing at the Samsung. I wonder, does anybody else feel the same about their partner? Miles walked since last column: 0 Cumulative miles walked: 0

Terry Land

Editor’s Note: This guest article is from Terry Land, who has lived in Thetford for just 16 months after spending his adult life in and around Bury St Edmunds. Now retired from work due to covid his former employment included working for a decade as a sub-editor on the sport benches of both the Sun and Mirror newspapers. In an effort to get to know his new space, he’s embarked on a personal challenge to walk every street of the town learning some history and recording his impressions for About Thetford magazine as he goes.”