Attleborough
Encyclopedia
Attleborough is a market town
and civil parish in Norfolk
, England
situated between Norwich
and Thetford
. The parish falls within the district
of Breckland
and has an area of 21.90 km² with a Mainline train service to both Norwich and Cambridge.
In the 2001 census
the town had a population of 9702 distributed between 4185 households.
Attleborough's MP is Elizabeth Truss
(Conservative), the MP for South-West Norfolk.
The town is served by Attleborough railway station
.
, Galfridus de Fontibus, Athla was the founder of the Ancient and royal town of Attleborough in Norfolk. In the Domesday survey launched in 1085 it is referred to as Attleburc.
After the Danes swept across Norfolk
and seized Thetford
, it is believed that the Saxons rallied their forces at Attleborough and probably threw up some form of protection. Although the Saxons put up a vigorous resistance, they eventually capitulated to the Danes and during the time of Edward the Confessor
, powerful Danish families like Toradre and Turkill rules local manors. If local records are correct, nothing but disaster was brought to Attleborough by the Danes, and it took the coming of William the Conqueror to restore some sense of well-being to the area.
Turkill relinquished his hold on the area to the Mortimer family towards the end of William's reign, and they governed Attleborough for more than three centuries. In the 14th century the Mortimer family founded the Chapel of the Holy Cross (being the South Transept of Attleborough Church), about a century later, a Sir Robert de Mortimer founded the College of the Holy Cross, and later was added the Nave and Aisles, to accommodate the congregation.
Following Henry the VIII's dissolution of the monasteries the building was virtually destroyed by Robert Radcliffe, Lord Fitz Walter, Earl of Sussex, and material from the building was used for making up the road between Attleborough and Buckenham. However, this left Attleborough Church with a tower at the East End.
Many towns can claim the distinction of having had a fire, and Attleborough is no exception, a great part of the town being destroyed by fire in 1559. It was during that period that the Griffin Hotel was built, and it was in the cellars of the Griffin that prisoners on their way to the March Assizes
in Thetford were confined overnight, tethered by chains to rings in the wall.
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The arrival of the prisoners aroused a great deal of public interest, and eventually traders set up a fair whenever they came. This became known as Attleborough Rogues Fair and was held on the Market Place on the last Thursday in March. Also on the market place festivities took place on Midsummer Day, when the annual guild was held. It appears that there has been the right to hold a weekly Thursday Market in the town since 1285. A weekly market is still held and has recently (in 2004) returned to Queen's Square where it is presumed the market was originally held.
The first turnpike
road in England is reputed to have been created here at the end of the 17th century, Acts of Parliament were passed in 1696 and 1709, "For the repairing of the highway between Wymondham
and Attleborough, in the County of Norfolk, and for including therein the road from Wymondham to Hethersett".
The first national census
of 1801 listed the population of Attleborough as 1,333. By 1845 Attleborough certainly dominated the surrounding parishes with a population of nearly 2,000, and in that year the railway (Norwich to Brandon) arrived.
The town supported six hostelries: The Griffin – the oldest, The Angel, The Bear, The Cock, The Crown and The White Horse. The Griffin, The Bear and The Cock still operate but The Crown is now a Youth Centre and The Angel is a building society branch office. Nothing is known of the fate of The White Horse after 1904, although the White Horse building still exists as a private house. There are currently two more public houses: The London Tavern and The Mulberry Tree, which is also an award winning restaurant. At the centre of the town is Queens Square, at one time referred to as market hill.
In 1863 a corn exchange was built in the High Street owned by a company of local farmers and in 1896 the Gaymers
cider-making plant was built on the south side of the railway and soon became established as the largest employer in the town. The factory has now closed for cider-making, but has recently re-opened as a chicken processing plant and the corn exchange is now a warehouse for a firm of electrical retailers.
The first world war affected Attleborough probably for no better or worse than many similar small towns. Five hundred and fifty men joined the armed forces and 96 did not return.
The 1920s saw continuing growth as a market centre, held on a Thursday the stalls spread along the pavements of Church Street and in an open area by the Angel Hotel opposite the Griffin Inn. It was the turkey sales which made the town a thriving market centre in the 1930s, and thousands were sold each year on Michaelmas day. Local employment still largely revolved round Gaymers cider works.
In the early thirties the Corn Hall was sold and became a cinema, reaching its heyday in the early 40s.
Well into the 1930s lighting was by oil lamps, then came the building of the Gas Works in Queens Road (since demolished, although the Gas Keepers house is still there). Gradually gas was piped into homes, but it was a slow process.
During 1939 the Old Post Office was sold and it became the Doric Restaurant in Queens Square. It is now the Town Hall. The new Post Office was built in Exchange Street.
There were two local airfields during World War II
, one at Deopham Green (Station 142) and one at Old Buckenham (Station 144).
Structurally the town changed little during the 1950s and there were no great leaps in population growth, other than the arrival of the notorious London gangsters, the Kray twins
, who took over a local hostelry. The sixties were different, the overspill programme and new town development brought new families into south Norfolk. Attleborough had to make decisions for the future and new development zones were designated.
The first estate programme began with the building of the council-owned Cyprus Estate which has since been complemented by other private housing schemes such as Fairfields and Ollands built mainly in the 1970s and a large estate on the south side of the town in the 1990s. The traditional traffic route along the A11 trunk road became a bottleneck as it ran both ways along High Street and Church Street, thus in the 1970s a one-way system was opened channeling traffic around the natural ring road surrounding the church. The volume of traffic continued to increase making that change obsolete so the Attleborough bypass was opened in 1984. The bypass was widened and completed in 2007 removing the only single lane section of the A11 between Thetford and Norwich.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
and civil parish in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
situated between Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
and Thetford
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
. The parish falls within the district
Non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a so-called "two-tier" arrangement...
of Breckland
Breckland (district)
Breckland District is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in East Dereham.Breckland District derives its name from the Breckland landscape region, a gorse covered sandy heath of south Norfolk and north Suffolk...
and has an area of 21.90 km² with a Mainline train service to both Norwich and Cambridge.
In the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
the town had a population of 9702 distributed between 4185 households.
Attleborough's MP is Elizabeth Truss
Elizabeth Truss
Elizabeth Mary Truss , also known as Liz Truss, is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk since the 2010 general election.-Early life:...
(Conservative), the MP for South-West Norfolk.
The town is served by Attleborough railway station
Attleborough railway station
Attleborough railway station is a railway station serving the town of Attleborough in the English county of Norfolk. It is served by local services operated by East Midlands Trains and on the Breckland Line 16 miles west of Norwich to Peterborough and Cambridge.A new Ticket Office opened in 2008...
.
History
The Anglo-Saxon foundation of the settlement is unrecorded. A popular theory of the town's origin makes it a foundation of an Atlinge, and certainly burgh (or burh) indicates that it was fortified at an early date. According to the mid-twelfth-century hagiographer of Saint EdmundSaint Edmund
Saint Edmund may refer to:* Saint Edmund the Martyr , king of East Anglia who was venerated as a martyr saint soon after his death at the hands of Vikings* Saint Edmund Arrowsmith , Jesuit, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales...
, Galfridus de Fontibus, Athla was the founder of the Ancient and royal town of Attleborough in Norfolk. In the Domesday survey launched in 1085 it is referred to as Attleburc.
After the Danes swept across Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
and seized Thetford
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
, it is believed that the Saxons rallied their forces at Attleborough and probably threw up some form of protection. Although the Saxons put up a vigorous resistance, they eventually capitulated to the Danes and during the time of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, powerful Danish families like Toradre and Turkill rules local manors. If local records are correct, nothing but disaster was brought to Attleborough by the Danes, and it took the coming of William the Conqueror to restore some sense of well-being to the area.
Turkill relinquished his hold on the area to the Mortimer family towards the end of William's reign, and they governed Attleborough for more than three centuries. In the 14th century the Mortimer family founded the Chapel of the Holy Cross (being the South Transept of Attleborough Church), about a century later, a Sir Robert de Mortimer founded the College of the Holy Cross, and later was added the Nave and Aisles, to accommodate the congregation.
Following Henry the VIII's dissolution of the monasteries the building was virtually destroyed by Robert Radcliffe, Lord Fitz Walter, Earl of Sussex, and material from the building was used for making up the road between Attleborough and Buckenham. However, this left Attleborough Church with a tower at the East End.
Many towns can claim the distinction of having had a fire, and Attleborough is no exception, a great part of the town being destroyed by fire in 1559. It was during that period that the Griffin Hotel was built, and it was in the cellars of the Griffin that prisoners on their way to the March Assizes
Assizes
Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to::;in common law countries :::*assizes , an obsolete judicial inquest...
in Thetford were confined overnight, tethered by chains to rings in the wall.
The first turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
road in England is reputed to have been created here at the end of the 17th century, Acts of Parliament were passed in 1696 and 1709, "For the repairing of the highway between Wymondham
Wymondham
Wymondham is a historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It lies 9.5 miles to the south west of the city of Norwich, on the A11 road to Thetford and London.- Before The Great Fire :...
and Attleborough, in the County of Norfolk, and for including therein the road from Wymondham to Hethersett".
The first national census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 1801 listed the population of Attleborough as 1,333. By 1845 Attleborough certainly dominated the surrounding parishes with a population of nearly 2,000, and in that year the railway (Norwich to Brandon) arrived.
The town supported six hostelries: The Griffin – the oldest, The Angel, The Bear, The Cock, The Crown and The White Horse. The Griffin, The Bear and The Cock still operate but The Crown is now a Youth Centre and The Angel is a building society branch office. Nothing is known of the fate of The White Horse after 1904, although the White Horse building still exists as a private house. There are currently two more public houses: The London Tavern and The Mulberry Tree, which is also an award winning restaurant. At the centre of the town is Queens Square, at one time referred to as market hill.
In 1863 a corn exchange was built in the High Street owned by a company of local farmers and in 1896 the Gaymers
Gaymer Cider Company
The Gaymer Cider Company produces and markets Cider. It is owned by C&C Group plc since 2010, who also owns Magners Cider, Bulmers Cider in Ireland and Tennents in Scotland.-History:The Gaymer family had a cider making business in Banham, Norfolk, from 1680...
cider-making plant was built on the south side of the railway and soon became established as the largest employer in the town. The factory has now closed for cider-making, but has recently re-opened as a chicken processing plant and the corn exchange is now a warehouse for a firm of electrical retailers.
The first world war affected Attleborough probably for no better or worse than many similar small towns. Five hundred and fifty men joined the armed forces and 96 did not return.
The 1920s saw continuing growth as a market centre, held on a Thursday the stalls spread along the pavements of Church Street and in an open area by the Angel Hotel opposite the Griffin Inn. It was the turkey sales which made the town a thriving market centre in the 1930s, and thousands were sold each year on Michaelmas day. Local employment still largely revolved round Gaymers cider works.
In the early thirties the Corn Hall was sold and became a cinema, reaching its heyday in the early 40s.
Well into the 1930s lighting was by oil lamps, then came the building of the Gas Works in Queens Road (since demolished, although the Gas Keepers house is still there). Gradually gas was piped into homes, but it was a slow process.
During 1939 the Old Post Office was sold and it became the Doric Restaurant in Queens Square. It is now the Town Hall. The new Post Office was built in Exchange Street.
There were two local airfields during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, one at Deopham Green (Station 142) and one at Old Buckenham (Station 144).
Structurally the town changed little during the 1950s and there were no great leaps in population growth, other than the arrival of the notorious London gangsters, the Kray twins
Kray twins
Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...
, who took over a local hostelry. The sixties were different, the overspill programme and new town development brought new families into south Norfolk. Attleborough had to make decisions for the future and new development zones were designated.
The first estate programme began with the building of the council-owned Cyprus Estate which has since been complemented by other private housing schemes such as Fairfields and Ollands built mainly in the 1970s and a large estate on the south side of the town in the 1990s. The traditional traffic route along the A11 trunk road became a bottleneck as it ran both ways along High Street and Church Street, thus in the 1970s a one-way system was opened channeling traffic around the natural ring road surrounding the church. The volume of traffic continued to increase making that change obsolete so the Attleborough bypass was opened in 1984. The bypass was widened and completed in 2007 removing the only single lane section of the A11 between Thetford and Norwich.
Church
The parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is partly Norman and partly 14th century. The east end of the church is Norman and the nave is late 14th century. In 1368 the College of Holy Cross was founded in the Norman part and at that time the nave was built for the use of the parish. The remarkable rood screen has the loft intact for its full width but has been often restored. It is one of the finest rood screens in Norfolk and above are frescoes of ca. 1500, since much-mutilated.Educational facilities
There are four schools in the town: Attleborough High School and Attleborough Infant School which reside on Norwich Road, Attleborough Junior School on the Besthorpe Road and a Special Needs school, Chapel Road School, named after its location.Notable residents
- The composer Malcolm ArnoldMalcolm ArnoldSir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
lived in the town in the from the late 1980s until his death in September 2006. - John FashanuJohn FashanuJohn "Fash" Fashanu is a British television presenter and ex-footballer of Nigerian and Guyanese descent. In his former career, he was a centre-forward, who scored 134 league goals in a career lasting 17 years...
and his brother Justin FashanuJustin FashanuJustinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English footballer who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997. He was known by his early clubs to be homosexual, and came out to the press later in his career, to become the first professional footballer to be openly gay...
lived in and went to school in Attleborough. - Ayrton SennaAyrton SennaAyrton Senna da Silva was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time...
lived in Attleborough during his early years in international motorsport through to his time in Formula One. - The writer, Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)George EliotMary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
attended boarding school in Attleborough.
External links
- Information from Genuki Norfolk on Attleborough.
- Breckland Council