The River Thet is a river in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and is a tributary of the

River Little Ouse The River Little Ouse is a river in the east of England, a tributary of the River Great Ouse. For much of its length it defines the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk. It rises east of Thelnetham, close to the source of the River Waveney, wh ...

.It rises in Breckland with sources in

Deopham Green Deopham is a village and civil parish in the England, English county of Norfolk. Deopham is located 3.9 miles west of Wymondham and 12 miles south-west of Norwich. History Deopham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English ...

and Rockland All Saints and joins the Little Ouse in

Thetford Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just east of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , in 2015 had a population of 24,340 ...

after flowing approximately southwest. The primary sources for its various small tributaries include the calcareous valley fen SSSIs Swangey Fen, Old Buckenham Fen, Middle Harling Fen and Kenninghall and Banham Fens with Quidenham Mere. Carr woodland is also a prevalent habitat throughout the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

where open wetlands have been invaded by scrub. The underlying geology is clay/loam over chalk for the easternmost parts of the river's course and sand/gravel over chalk for the majority of the river.

Etymology, course and notable settlements nearby

The name actually comes from

rather than the other way around as Thetford was such an important settlement during the

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

period from which the name is derived. The other most notable settlement along the Thet is

East Harling East Harling is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village forms the principal settlement in the civil parish of Harling, and is located east of Thetford and south-west of the city of NorwichOrdnance Survey (1999). ''OS Explorer M ...

where the river has been forded for many centuries. Now a brick and concrete bridge carries the B1111 road over the river. Beneath the bridge is a

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

and a widened section of river with a gravel bed (elsewhere the riverbed is predominantly mud). Downstream the river passes over another weir at

Bridgham Bridgham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 328 in 130 households at the 2001 census, increasing to a population of 335 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local gov ...

where another bridge crosses it and then through the Shadwell Estate. Here it splits into two channels, reconverges and passes a large artificial lake. When the river reaches

it curves south then west again, meeting the Little Ouse just west of Butten Island in the centre of the town. In the upper reaches of the Thet, there are a series of lakes including flooded gravel pits. These are situated at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

in a linear pattern along the floodplain and also near Attleborough. All of these lakes are on private land and used for fishing.https://snetterton-fishing-lakes.business.site/

References

Thet {{England-river-stub