Statue of Thomas Paine.
When this statue was erected, one of the town councillors resigned in protest, and claimed that the best place for it was the sewage farm! Thomas Paine was an eighteenth century free thinker and revolutionary. His publications challenged the authority of both Royalty and the Church. He was one of the fathers of modern western republicanism and democracy. He played a central part in the American revolution, and also became involved with the French revolution. He argued for such revolutionary ideas as democracy, a welfare state, prison reform, and state pensions many years before the notions became publicly popular. Thetford's most famous (or is it infamous) son - Tom Paine.
