Attleborough | |
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Attleborough railway station |
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Attleborough shown within Norfolk | |
Area | 21.9 km2 (8.5 sq mi) |
Population | 9,702 (2001 Census) 10,482 (2011) |
• Density | 443/km2 (1,150/sq mi) |
OS grid reference | TM049954 |
Civil parish |
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District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Attleborough |
Postcode district | NR17 |
Dialling code | 01953 |
Police | Norfolk |
Fire | Norfolk |
Ambulance | East of England |
EU Parliament | East of England |
UK Parliament | |
Website | Attleborough Town Council |
Attleborough is a market town and civil parish between Norwich and Thetford in Norfolk, England. The parish is in the district of Breckland and has an area of 21.9 square kilometres (8.5 sq mi).
The 2001 Census recorded the town as having a population of 9,702 distributed between 4,185 households, increasing to a population of 10,482 in 4,481 households in the 2011 Census.
Attleborough is in the Mid-Norfolk constituency of the UK Parliament, represented since the 2010 general election by the Conservative MP George Freeman.
Attleborough railway station provides a main line rail service to both Norwich and Cambridge.
The Anglo-Saxon foundation of the settlement is unrecorded. A popular theory of the town's origin makes it a foundation of an Atlinge, and certainly burgh (or burh) indicates that it was fortified at an early date. According to the mid-12th century hagiographer of Saint Edmund, Galfridus de Fontibus, Athla was the founder of the Ancient and royal town of Attleborough in Norfolk. In the Domesday survey launched in 1085 it is referred to as Attleburc.
After the Danes swept across Norfolk and seized Thetford, it is believed that the Saxons rallied their forces at Attleborough and probably threw up some form of protection. Although the Saxons put up a vigorous resistance, they eventually capitulated to the Danes and during the time of Edward the Confessor, powerful Danish families like Toradre and Turkill rules local manors. If local records are correct, nothing but disaster was brought to Attleborough by the Danes, and it took the coming of William the Conqueror to restore some sense of well-being to the area.