Thetford buildings [33]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 8 Sep 2020

Now used as a warehouse, this is the former Bidwell Brewery, numbers 17 and 19 Old Market Street. Built in flint with gault brick dressings it forms part of a complex of brewery buildings which includes a warehouse Image and a Maltmaster's house. The brewery was a family-run business that was established in Thetford in 1710 and grew rapidly throughout the Victorian period. When it was sold in 1905 the business owned 105 hotels and pubs as well as malthouses and various other buildings in the town. The main Old Market Street brewery continued to be known as Bidwell's Brewery until 1924, when it was sold to Bullard's. The building is listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1297823 Once the ancient capital of East Anglia, Thetford is a market town established at a crossing of the River Little Ouse. A major centre of Boudica’s Iceni tribe with an Iron Age fort. Later came a Norman castle and an important priory. Thetford is the birthplace of 18th century radical Thomas Paine, whose thinking encouraged American independence and the abolition of slavery. After World War II, Thetford became an "overspill town", taking people from London.

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