Welcome to the site run by the sub-committee of the Thetford Society (charity number 802218) responsible for the Bicentennial Celebrations for Tom Paine in his home town throughout 2009.

Following the Celebrations, the committee has been reconstituted with a Legacy brief, to maintain the profile of Thetford's radical thinker in the town. At the heart of our programme is an annual Autumn Lecture series - the Common Sense Club.

Click on the links for reports and information about our past and present activities or navigate using the tabs above and to the side of the page.

The Past

Two substantial records of Thetford's 2009 Paine Bicentenary Celebrations are still available - the Commemorative Video and Bicentenary Papers. Two lectures from 2009 by Ruth Scurr and John Keane are preserved; see box on the left.

Recordings of the first three lectures given to the Common Sense Club in 2010 go online for the first time this September. Use the links in the box on the left to listen to them. Many thanks to Clive Davies for preparing the sound files.

The Present - Common Sense Club

Formed in 2010, the Common Sense Club resumed on Friday 30th September with a lecture by Dr Linda Kirk.