Thetford

Thetford lies at the meeting of the Little Ouse and the Thet, on the edge of the sandy Breckland. Its Cluniac priory, founded in the early twelfth century, became a place of pilgrimage and the burial place of powerful noble families. The monastery's church and cloister formed the centre of a wealthy religious community until the priory was dissolved in 1540. Its surviving ruins recall the scale of that medieval foundation.