EPW039260 ENGLAND (1932). The town centre, Thetford, 1932

Sorry but the tannery and Tanner's House are a few yards further east.

Castle Street was known as Little Magdalen Street in the 19thC.

I have no record of this building being a public house but that's not to say it never was.

This was St Mary's Rectory 20thC. In Great War - 1930s was the residence of Rev Hardy and his wife, authoress, Mary Hardy. In 19thC the house was the brewery house of W.W. Wicks. The brewhouse was next-door and the malt house and other departments opposite. The house is now a B&B and the brewhouse was demolished and replaced with modern dwellings.

This is the Red Lion Inn that was opened in 1838 on the site where a cast-iron shambles was erected in 1786. The Red Lion owned by the Corporation from the early years of the 17th century. It is still owned by Thetford Town Council today.

This area in front of the Guildhall has been the Market Place from 1837 when it was moved from the area between the Green Dragon and St Cuthbert's Church that had served as the market from 1786. Traditionally Thetford's market day was a Saturday but an additional weekday market was formally established in the early 1970s. In 1836/37 the cast-iron market Shambles erected in 1786 was demolished to make way for a new Red Lion Inn.

This building was erected in 1887 as a Mechanic Insitute to commemorate Queen Victoria's Jubilee. By the 1930s it was being used as premises of Thetford Borough Council. In the 1950s and 60s it was the Thetford County Library. After a new library was built in the early 1970s the building became a doctor's surgery, then a wine bar and since early 21st century the headquarters of the local Royal British Legion.

The present Guildhall was opened in 1902 replacing a guildhall that was built to the same plan 1799-1800. It is believed that a guildhall has stood on this site since the 14th century. Photos of the Guildhall built at the end of the 18thC survive but little is known of the design or architecture of earlier guildhalls. The religious guild dedicated to St Mary the Virgin is responsible for the guildhall. There chapel once stood close to the medieval market place.