History
PRE-1000AD
The area around Brandon was colonised by Neolithic farmers, with the flint mines at nearby Grimes Graves providing evidence of their existence. Flint is very much tied up with Brandon’s history and these farmers used it for all manner of tools including axes, arrow heads, knives, scrapers.
An excavation at the bottom of the Brandon Remembrance Playing Fields, near the Staunch, found evidence of an Iron Age settlement, most likely consisting of the Iceni, whose most notorious leader was Boudicca. After Boudicca’s defeat at the hands of the Romans, Romans settled in the area, from about 60AD, although there has so far been little archaeological evidence found within Brandon itself.
By about 700AD, a Saxon community had settled on a sandy ‘island’ on what is now the bottom of the Remembrance Playing Field. An archaeological excavation in the 1980s suggested it was a substantial settlement, with a causeway linking it to higher ground, a wooden church, (perhaps with glass windows), and a lot if industry taking place. Shards of pottery from Northern Europe were found, as was the earliest evidence of falconry taking place in Britain. It was most likely at this point that Brandon got its name - “hill on which broom grows”. Another suggestion is “Branda’s town”.
Bones were also found by the river to suggest a battle took place between Saxon and Dane, (Viking), and the Saxon settlement was abandoned. A later settlement was established on higher ground in the area around St. Peter’s church, Church Road and the Avenue and by 970AD the Manor of Brandon was given over to the monks of Ely.
1000-1500
The Norman Conquest, post 1066, did not initially affect Brandon, but Hereward the Wake crossed through the area to attack the William the Conqueror’s forces in the Fens. There is suggestion William built a fort at Brandon, by the river, although it may have been more of a fortified encampment. Legend has it, William employed the services of a witch, while he was at Brandon, to curse Hereward. It is at this time that Brandon gets its first bridge across the river, most likely near to its modern siting. The Doomsday Book mentions a church at Brandon.
It was the Normans who introduced rabbits into the area and over time large warrens were set up to control and farm the animals. Warreners, living in fortified buildings with their family, were employed to work on the warrens and prevent poaching.
In 1395, Simon Eyre was born in Brandon. As a teenager, he went to London and found work as a draper. In 1425 he was elected Master of the Drapers and in 1445, in the reign of Henry VI, he became Lord Mayor of London. He died in 1458.
1500-1800
Brandon’s bridge offered a rare crossing over the river from the Fens and into Norfolk. Numerous inns sprang up to accommodate the many pilgrims travelling to the shrine at Walsingham, which saw the settlement near St Peter’s church move there also. This new settlement of inns by the bridge became known as Brandon Ferry Street, which we know of today as High Street. Those who didn’t move there created a second settlement known as Town Street, effectively creating two communities. Tolls were charged on the bridge and in 1550, Edward VI granted the right of collecting the tolls to Sir Richard Fulmerston, then in 1573 these rights were given to the town of Thetford. In 1640, the wooden bridge at Brandon was repaired at a cost of £40.
In the Civil War, 1642-51, Brandon was in the heart of Parliamentary land, but no battles were fought here.
Between 1665 and 1670, huge sandstorms took place which threatened Santon Downham near Brandon, which was probably a result of the over population of rabbits eating vegetation that would otherwise retain the soil. A large dune slowly crept from Lakenheath and circled Brandon. The sand clogged up in the river, for three miles, and engulfed houses.
1673, at a meeting at the Ram Hotel it was decided to build a workhouse, for the relief of the poor, near St Peter’s church. The building, made from ‘clunch’ (large chalk bricks) still stands today as a private residence. It became a school in Victorian times.
1754 Brandon saw a building erected to store the town’s manual fire pump. The small building, on London Road, still stands today.
1789 saw the ‘Fire of Brandon’, when thatched buildings were destroyed in High Street.
1800-1900
1801 – Brandon’s population reaches 1,148.
It is not known when Brandon first began flintknapping gun flints, but there is no doubt the British battles against Napoleon saw a dramatic demand for them. The flint found around Brandon was far superior to that of anything else found, so Brandon flintknappers were the sole suppliers of gunflints to Wellington’s forces at Waterloo. Millions were produced in the town, thus making the fortunes of a few men. Phillip Hayward received the first order, for 100,000, in 1790 and in 1793 he moved into ‘Flint Hall’, by the primary school.
If Brandon’s fortunes were made at Waterloo, it then caused a sudden depression when the war was over and orders for gunflints stopped. Low employment and low wages, combined with huge price increases for grain, bread and meat, led to the Brandon Riots of 1816. A large crowd, armed with sharpened sticks and a banner proclaiming “Bread or Blood”, gathered on Market Hill. They destroyed the house of a Brandon butcher and threatened to march to London. Dragoons were called for and the Riot Act was read to disperse the crowd. Eventually the protestors’ demands were met, along with cheap beer for the men.
By 1838, the tradition of gun flintknapping was all but gone, but the town was saved by the introduction of rabbit fur processing to make felt hats. Two large factories emerged by the end of the century – Rought on George Street and Lingwood on Thetford Road.
In 1845, the railway came to Brandon. The town, with a population of 2,000, was added to the Ely-Norwich line and a station was erected from flint. The building still stands today, despite being repeatedly threatened with demolition. The railway spells the end of trade coming up the river by barge.
1868, a gas works, which burned coke to make gas, was erected just off Thetford Road. It supplied the town’s gas for homes and street lights.
1871, an outbreak of smallpox causes many deaths in the town. According to locals, it was introduced by an infected ‘tramp’ coming to town.
GREAT WAR 1914-18 (WORLD WAR ONE)
The ‘Great War’ of 1914-18, saw all able-bodied men leave town to go off and fight, leaving a depressed local economy, with women and children replacing the men by working in factories and farms. The town also saw many regiments come to town for training, often billeted nearby. The railway provided quick travel as well as taking wood for use in the trenches.
In 1919, Brandon saw a riot in High Street, when 2,000 locals and soldiers protested at the treatment of a disabled war veteran. The man had been assaulted by a local butcher.
In October 1920, Brandon’s war memorial is unveiled to the town. It includes the names of sixty-five men killed in the ‘Great War’.
Due to the fact the ‘Great War’ saw so much of Britain’s forest depleted, to provide props for the trenches, the Forestry Commission was created and in 1922 it began buying large estates and land around Brandon. Local men were employed to plant trees and the sidings at Brandon railway station are expanded to transport the timber. Today, the forest around Brandon is known as ‘Thetford Forest’, although the main attraction – High Lodge; is just a mile or two from Brandon.
SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-45
Once again Brandon lads went off to war and saw service in all theatres – Dunkirk, D-Day, Middle East, Malta, Singapore, Atlantic, Italy, Germany. The opening of the Stanford Battle Area during the war, saw many tank camps spring up around town, with a repair facility created on what is now London Road Industrial Estate. The test track is still evident today.
The town itself was attacked on a few occasions, usually by German bombers at night. However, a lone German bomber, a Dornier 17, strafed women stood outside a fur factory and school children playing outside in their lunch break with machine gun bullets. On another occasion on Thetford Road, a teenage boy was almost killed by an explosion outside his bedroom, sadly his pet dogs and rabbits were killed instantly. It seems these were the only casualties in Brandon during the war.
Just outside Brandon, a decoy airfield was built to attract the attention of the enemy away from nearby R.A.F. bases. It, in turn, became operational as R.A.F. Lakenheath, flying Stirling bombers to occupied Europe and Germany. After the war, it was decommissioned by the RAF and occupied by the United States Air Force, although remains a RAF base.
POST WAR – PRESENT
When peace reigned and soldiers returned to their civilian jobs, the huge army camp on London Road became empty, but not for long. With a chronic lack of housing in the area, coinciding with a contingent of Polish ex-soldiers coming to Brandon, local and Polish families squatted at the camp. It alleviated the local authority’s housing shortage so a blind eye was turned. Many families spent years at the camp before being relocated. The Polish integrated within the community and many descendants still remain in town. It is also suggested the Polish women were responsible for resurrecting the fortunes of the town’s market.
In the 1950s, the combination of myxomatosis and a decline in people wearing fur hats, saw Brandon’s fur industry disappear.
In 1953, the town’s old medieval bridge was replaced by a modern version.
The 1960 and 1970s saw great change in building style for Brandon. A large ‘overspill’ estate was created off Bury Road, for residents of Greater London Council and vast numbers of bungalows were built across town. In Town Street, local council bungalows were built at the expense of old flint cottages. It was at this time Brandon also lost its Manor House. The town also saw the addition of two new schools – Breckland Secondary in the 1960s and Glade Primary in the 1970s.
Written by Darren Norton, based on research by the late David Pocock.