In the later Anglo-Saxon period Thetford was one of East Anglia’s major towns until Norwich Cathedral was built in the 1090s. A surviving feature of that old Thetford is the giant Norman motte of Castle Hill standing over 80 feet high and being one of the largest man-made mounds in the country. It is believed to have been built soon after 1066; King Henry II took it in 1157 and its defences were dismantled after the war of 1173.
