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Update from The Flâneur
My very favourite Thetford walk is the pretty stroll from the Blaydon Bridge, along Haling Path and on to Butten Island and the Spring Walk up to Nun’s Bridges. I’ve yet to get tired of the change of seasons and activity along the rivers; human, animal and vegetable. My wife has a particular fascination with Spring House, largely I suspect, from an overdose of Downton Abbey. We’ve never actually watched the show together – for me a “costume drama” is confined to the fuss we have over what to wear before a night out – but I know she sneaks an episode or two in if I’m not around.
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Built about a century before the TV series and just two years prior to the unpopular and wasteful George IV ascending the throne, Spring House was the epicentre of an attempt to reinvent Thetford as a spa town. Although the plan failed, and the pump house was closed 20 years later, we can still enjoy a stroll along Spring Walk with Gore-Tex clad walkers a substitute for Regency finery. If your version of historical interest tends towards the social, the following story may be of more interest. In 1885 a Miss Cooke, possibly fed up with unemployed using the land behind her house as an ad hoc meeting place, decided to build a fence that enclosed land on the western quadrant of Town Bridge (where the bench now sits). A restless crowd grew at the site with the appearance of Miss Cooke providing the spark that ignited what are now known as the “Thetford Riots”. In less than half an hour the mob tore the fence down and threw it in the river. Seizing their new found power, our heroes adjourned down the river to Spring Walk and tore down further fencing. After some toing and froing the Mayor, Mr Sowells, was forced to address the crowd and literally read the Riot Act to the assembled, a function I fervently hope the current Mayor, Cllr Mike Brindle never has to fulfil. Order was restored only after a stone hit the Mayor in the face. In that respect I know how he feels! Terry Land, The Flâneur
Above: The Baths at Thetford ©Norfolk Museum Service/Ancient House Museum featuring Spring House and Regency life along the river. Opposite: the site of the start of Thetford Riots
The deadline for inclusion in the April edition of About Thetford magazine is the 15th March. The Mulberry REV Advert 7.qxp_Layout 1 12/05/2021 16:50 Page 1Send content to;
