1.
Thetford
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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, after World War II Thetford became an ‘overspill town’ taking people from London, as a result of which its population increased substantially. The civil parish, covering an area of 29.55 km2, has a population of 24,340, the Iceni were a Celtic tribe living in Norfolk and parts of Cambridgeshire. Archaeological evidence suggests that Thetford was an important tribal centre during the late Iron Age, a ceremonial grove was uncovered there during excavations. In 1979, a hoard of Romano-British metalwork, known as the Thetford treasure was located just outside Thetford and they are currently on display and under curation at the British Museum. Thetford, an important crossing of the River Little Ouse, draws its name from the Anglo-Saxon Theodford or peoples ford, the nearby River Thet was later named after the town. On 20 November 869, Edmund the Martyr – the last native King of the East Angles – was killed in East Anglia by Vikings, for a time Edmund was England’s patron saint. The Domesday Book lists William of Bello Fargo as the Bishop of Thetford in 1085, Castle Hill, to the south-east of the town centre, is a Norman motte though no trace remains of the castle which once surmounted it. The mound is open to the public, and provides excellent views of the town from its summit and it is in a public park, near the Three Nuns Bridges and close to the town centre overlooking the rivers. Thetford also contains the ruins of a 12th-century Cluniac priory, Thetford Priory, open to the public, was closed during the Reformation. Both the Priory and the Bell Inn, also in Thetford, were featured for their alleged hauntings on the television series Ghosthunters, the Black Horse public house dates from the mid 18th century, and is grade II listed. The Norfolk Lent Assizes were held at Thetford from 1264 because there was only one Assize for both Norfolk and Suffolk, Thetford, being close to the border between the two, was convenient for both. However, after pressure, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1832 to transfer them to Norwich. There had been pressure to do so for many years, from the 1950s Thetford became a London overspill town. In 1953 the Thetford Borough Council approached the London County Council to become part of the expansion scheme. An agreement was signed in 1957 and work began on new housing estates to accommodate 5,000 Londoners, in 1960 another 5,000 Londoners moved to Thetford increasing the population to about 17,000 people. An additional 1,500 houses were built by 1965, development then shifted to the Abbey Farm estate to the north of the river, construction of which started in 1967, with 1,000 houses, public open spaces and footpaths. The British Trust for Ornithology moved its headquarters into the former Nunnery, south of the town centre, Thetford was the birthplace of Thomas Paine and his statue stands on King Street, holding a quill and his book Rights of Man, upside down
2.
Norfolk
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Norfolk /ˈnɔːrfək/ is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the west and north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. With an area of 2,074 square miles and a population of 859,400, of the countys population, 40% live in four major built up areas, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, the area is not a National Park although it is marketed as such. It has similar status to a park, and is protected by the Broads Authority. Norfolk was settled in times, with camps along the higher land in the west. A Brythonic tribe, the Iceni, inhabited the county from the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD, the Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second opened the county to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the county, situated on the east coast, Norfolk was vulnerable to invasions from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and forts were built to defend against the Angles and Saxons. Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, the influence of the Early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in -ton and -ham. Endings such as -by and -thorpe are also common, indicating Danish place names, in the 9th century the region came under attack. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have high, by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture, the economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian, the economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry except in Norwich which was an addition to the railway network. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation, during the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Norfolks low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to the sea, the low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding
3.
Thomas Paine
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Thomas Paine was an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of human rights. He has been called a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, virtually every rebel read his powerful pamphlet Common Sense, proportionally the all-time best-selling American title, which crystallized the rebellious demand for independence from Great Britain. His The American Crisis was a pamphlet series. Common Sense was so influential that John Adams said, Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, Paine lived in France for most of the 1790s, becoming deeply involved in the French Revolution. He wrote Rights of Man, in part a defense of the French Revolution against its critics and his attacks on Anglo-Irish conservative writer Edmund Burke led to a trial and conviction in absentia in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel. In 1792, despite not being able to speak French, he was elected to the French National Convention, the Girondists regarded him as an ally. Consequently, the Montagnards, especially Robespierre, regarded him as an enemy, in December 1793, he was arrested and was taken to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. While in prison, he continued to work on The Age of Reason, future President James Monroe used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. He also published the pamphlet Agrarian Justice, discussing the origins of property, in 1802, he returned to the U. S. where he died on June 8,1809. Only six people attended his funeral as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity, Paine was born on January 29,1736, the son of Joseph Pain and Frances, in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Joseph was a Quaker and Frances an Anglican, born Thomas Pain, despite claims that he changed his family name upon his emigration to America in 1774, he was using Paine in 1769, while still in Lewes, Sussex. He attended Thetford Grammar School, at a time there was no compulsory education. At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to his stay-maker father, Paine researchers contend his fathers occupation has been widely misinterpreted to mean that he made the stays in ladies corsets, which likely was an insult later invented by his political foes. Actually, the father and apprentice son made the thick rope stays used on sailing ships, Thetford historically had maintained a brisk trade with the downriver, then major, port town of Kings Lynn. A connection to shipping and the sea explains why, in adolescence, Thomas enlisted and briefly served as a privateer. There, he became a master stay-maker, establishing a shop in Sandwich, on September 27,1759, Thomas Paine married Mary Lambert. Mary became pregnant, and, after they moved to Margate, she went into labor, in which she
4.
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
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Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk KG PC, styled Earl of Surrey from 1483 to 1485 and again from 1489 to 1514, was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, by his first wife. The Duke was the grandfather of both Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Catherine Howard and the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. He served four monarchs as a soldier and statesman and he was educated at Thetford Grammar School. While a youth he entered the service of King Edward IV as a henchman, Howard took the Kings side when war broke out in 1469 with the Earl of Warwick, and took sanctuary at Colchester when the King fled to Holland in 1470. Howard rejoined the forces at Edwards return to England in 1471. He was appointed an esquire of the body in 1473, on 14 January 1478 he was knighted by Edward IV at the marriage of the Kings second son, the young Duke of York, and Lady Anne Mowbray. After the death of Edward IV on 9 April 1483, Thomas Howard, Thomas bore the Sword of State at Richards coronation, and served as steward at the coronation banquet. Both Thomas and his father were granted lands by the new King, on 28 June 1483, John Howard was created Duke of Norfolk, while Thomas was created Earl of Surrey. Surrey was also sworn of the Privy Council and invested with the Order of the Garter, in the autumn of that year Norfolk and Surrey suppressed a rebellion against the King by the Duke of Buckingham. Both Howards remained close to King Richard throughout his reign, and fought for him at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, where Surrey was wounded and taken prisoner. Surrey was attainted in the first Parliament of the new King, Henry VII, stripped of his lands, and committed to the Tower of London, where he spent the next three years. Howard was offered an opportunity to escape during the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln in 1487, in May 1489 Henry restored him to the earldom of Surrey, although most of his lands were withheld, and sent him to quell a rebellion in Yorkshire. Surrey remained in the north as the Kings lieutenant until 1499, in 1499 he was recalled to court, and accompanied the King on a state visit to France in the following year. In 1501 he was appointed a member of the Council. Surrey, Bishop Richard Foxe, the Lord Privy Seal, and Archbishop William Warham and he was entrusted with a number of diplomatic missions. In 1501 he was involved in the negotiations for Catherine of Aragons marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and in 1503 conducted Margaret Tudor to Scotland for her wedding to King James IV. Surrey was an executor of the will of King Henry VII when the King died on 21 April 1509 and he challenged Thomas Wolsey in an effort to become the new Kings first minister, but eventually accepted Wolseys supremacy
5.
Independent school (United Kingdom)
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For example, pupils do not have to follow the National Curriculum. Seven of the older, expensive and more schools catering for the 13–18 age-range in England. The term public being derived from the fact that they were open to pupils regardless of where they lived or their religion, prep schools, educate younger children up to the age of 13 to prepare them for entry to the public schools and other independent schools. Some former grammar schools converted to an independent fee paying model following the 1965 Circular 10/65 which marked the end of their state funding, others converted into comprehensive schools. There are around 2,500 independent schools in the UK, in addition to charging tuition fees, many also benefit from gifts, charitable endowments and charitable status. Many of these schools are members of the Independent Schools Council and these schools were founded as part of the church and were under their complete dominion. However, it was during the late 14th & early 15th centuries that the first schools, winchester & Oswestry were the first of their kind and paved the way for the establishment of the modern Public school. These were often established for scholars from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds, however, English law has always regarded education as a charitable end in itself. For instance, the Queens Scholarships founded at Westminster in 1560, are for the sons of decayd gentlemen, also, facilities already provided by the charitable foundation for a few scholars could profitably be extended to further paying pupils. After a time, such fees would eclipse the original charitable income, in 2009 senior boarding schools were charging fees of between £16,000 and nearly £30,000 per annum. However, majority of the independent schools today are still registered as a charity, christs Hospital in Horsham is one of the examples, large proposition of its students are funded by its charitable foundation or by various benefactors. Most public schools developed significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries, under a number of forward-looking headmasters leading public schools created a curriculum based heavily on classics and physical activity for boys and young men of the upper and upper middle classes. They were schools for the elite of Victorian politics, armed forces. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to a school as a mark of participation in the elite. More recently heads of schools have been emphasising that senior pupils now play a much reduced role in disciplining. To an extent, the school system influenced the school systems of the British Empire. Until 1975 there had been a group of 179 academically selective schools drawing on both private and state funding, the direct grant grammar schools, the Direct Grant Grammar Schools Regulations 1975 required these schools to choose between full state funding as comprehensive schools and full independence. As a result,119 of these schools became independent, pupil numbers at independent schools fell slightly during the mid-1970s recession
6.
Francis Blomefield
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Francis Blomefield was an English antiquary, who projected a county history of Norfolk. Francis Blomefield was born in the village of Fersfield in south Norfolk, the eldest son of Henry and Alice Blomefield, who were yeoman farmers. He was educated at Diss and Thetford Grammar Schools, and in April 1724, he was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1727 and MA in 1728. Upon leaving university in 1727, he was ordained a priest, appointed as rector of Hargham in 1729, on 1 September 1732, he married Mary Womack, the daughter of a former rector of Fersfield. They had three daughters, two of whom survived him, as a boy, Blomefield began recording monumental inscriptions from churches he visited in Norfolk, Suffolk and later Cambridgeshire. Whilst at college, he also kept genealogical and heraldic notes relating to local families, in July 1733, Blomefield published his proposals for publishing An essay towards a topographical history of Norfolk in parts. Soon afterwards, while collecting information for his history, he discovered some of the famous Paston Letters. By 1736, he was ready to begin publishing the results of his researches into type, assisted by his friend Charles Parkin, at the end of 1739, the first volume of Blomefield’s History of Norfolk was completed. It was printed at the authors own press at Fersfield, acquired especially for the purpose, the second volume, consisting of a detailed history of Norwich, was begun in 1741 and completed by 1745. In 1751, Blomefield published his Cambridgeshire notes as a volume entitled Collectanea Cantabrigiensia. He was two-thirds through his third volume, but had covered about 40% of the county when he contracted smallpox during a visit to London. In 1871, clergyman and naturalist Leonard Jenyns inherited the property of his distant cousin Francis Blomefield, as a condition of the inheritance Jenyns changed his name to Blomefield by Royal Licence. The topographical history of the areas of Norfolk was subsequently completed by Blomefield’s friend, Charles Parkin. The remaining sheets of volume 3 and two further volumes were published at Kings Lynn between 1769 and 1775. The entire work was reprinted in eleven quarto volumes in London between 1805 and 1810. Blomefield’s Norfolk was both detailed and largely reliable and comparable with the best county histories of the period, blomefields History of Norfolk at Wikisource Works by or about Francis Blomefield in libraries
