In the Anglo-Saxon period, it was the at home of the monarchs of East Anglia and was seat of a bishopric. Castle Hill is the greatest Norman motte in England though no trace remains of A castle which when surmounted it, a mound (motte) is open to the public, & will bring an fantabulous watch of the town from either its summit or even the extensive earthworks. These are placed around a public park, touching a 3 Nuns Bridges & some a town centre overlooking the streams, lakes, and wells throughout. Thetford contains the ruined Cluniac Priory which dates from a 12th century & whose remains come open to the public. A Priory was closed in the Reformation. It is reputedly haunted and was a subject of an episode of the television series Ghosthunters, another episode of which featured a alleged haunting of the Bell Inn as well around Thetford.

In a eighteenth century a town was the birthplace of far-famed radical Thomas Paine.

Now, a circumferent Breckland has been largely replaced by the Thetford Forest though Thetford Chase remains.

Thetford is on the A11 road between Norwich and London and has the railway station, served per oddly known as One (railway) running services between Norwich and Cambridge, and by Central Trains, running off services from either Norwich to Liverpool via either Sheffield and Manchester or Birmingham and Manchester. From either Cambridge, regular services start to London King's Cross.