Thetford, Norfolk - St Peter

Cards on the table, Thetford. is. a. hellhole. Whoever is responsible for traffic management should be sacked and the people responsible for its development need to be held accountable for what Simon Knott memorably describes as the "rape of Thetford". Generally I find this area of Norfolk to be amongst the most attractive of East Anglian delights but Thetford is an irradicable stain. It also appears to be fairly Godless [unsurprising] since two of its old churches are redundant and the third locked. It's a soul destroying town.

Redundant -

www.edp24.co.uk/news/thetford-s-empty-st-peter-s-church-t...

One of Thetford’s three surviving medieval churches, St Peter’s, on Whitehart Street, was bought by the town council from the Norwich Diocese in 2008 for just £1. Although works were done to revamp the building it was left unused.

However, Thetford-based community voluntary organisation SIMPLE Norfolk, has taken on the lease and has vowed to bring life back into the Grade-II listed building while also maintaining its heritage.
The organisation, whose youth project Inspire Focus - which supports young people into education, careers and volunteering - will use the church as a base, will turn the space into a community hub.
Renamed St Peter’s Cultural Arts Centre, it will house a piano-bar style cafe, where people can pick up an instrument and play, and will also be a music venue.

Joe Barreto, who runs SIMPLE Norfolk with his wife Carla, said: “It is about having a place that the community feels proud of and it can use. We don’t want this to be a temporary thing; we want it to be long term.

“Young people should have a place they can depend on. We want to make this available for them and we want to make it a place for the town.”

The couple said work to refurbish the church will be a gradual process. They hope to re-do the flooring and repaint the inside walls. They also want to preserve stones on the centre aisle by creating a glass floor and hope to encase the altar in glass to protect and keep it for people to enjoy.

“It is one of the oldest buildings in the town and is a place people feel a connection with,” said Mrs Barreto, who has said young people will be trained to work in the café. “We want to be able to preserve it and for it to be a place where people can enjoy and be proud of.”

The space will also include an infinity photography studio which will be used by Inspire Focus youngsters but will also be available to the community.

The couple are hoping to raise money to help with the work.

They have applied for an Aviva Community Fund grant but need people’s votes.

Suffolk singer and song writer Alton Wahlberg will play an acoustic night, featuring other local artists, at the St Peter’s Cultural Arts Centre on Friday, November 17 from 7pm.

And less than a year later they've been evicted! Too depressing and now the church is inaccessible.

ST PETER, King Street. W tower with buttresses with handsome chequer flint- and stonework. The tower was rebuilt in 1789, and the pretty Gothick doorway dates from that time. N aisle with original roof and arcade of four bays towards the nave. Octagonal piers, double-chamfered arches. The same design for the N chapel arcade of three bays. Perp windows. - Two wrought-iron SWORD RESTS, C18. - STAINED GLASS. Heraldic, C18. - PLATE. Two large Chalices, two large Patens, and two Flagons, silver-plated but gilt, given in 1791; two Patens, 1791.

For Mee see here.

Flickr.