Manual Ref* NFbreTH001 Show 4 images 521
Title*

Thomas Paine
County Norfolk   District Council Breckland 
Civil Parish or equivalent Thetford  Town/Village* Thetford 
Road King Street 
Precise Location In front of King's House 
OS Grid Ref TL869831  Postcode IP24 
Previous location(s) Meltzer records that the statue was unveiled outside the parish church (St Cuthbert's) having been rejected for a site opposite the British Legion 
Setting On main street of the historic centre  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
Sir Charles Wheeler  Sculptor(s)   

Commissioned by

 Thomas Paine Foundation 

Design & Constrn period

  

Date of installing

 1964 

Exact date of unveiling

 07/06/1964 

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type:

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Statue  Bronze with brass gilt  H 2.25 m x W 1.5 m (approx) 
Plinth  Limestone (probably Portland)  H 155 cm x W 143.5 cm x D 86.5 cm 
Single step  Limestone  H 17 cm x W 235 cm x D 178.5 cm 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Norfolk County Council 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail: In need of re-gilding

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail: Minor pen markings to west-facing inscription

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks Sculptor Charles Wheeler P.R.A: Dedicated June 7.1964 
Inscriptions Front: 'MY COUNTRY IS THE WORLD : MY RELIGION TO DO GOOD' / 'Presented to the people of England / by the Thomas Paine Foundation / New York U.S.A. Secretary Joseph Lewis' // West-facing: 'Independence is / my happiness and / I view things as / they are without / regard to place or / person I had rather / record a thousand / errors dictated / by humanity than / one inspired by a / justice too severe / Wisdom is not the / purchase of a day' // East-facing: 'Justice is due to every / man : I seek no re- / compense - I fear / no consequences / Fortified with that / proud integrity that / disdains triumph or / to yield. I will ad- / vocate the rights / of man : it is an / affront to truth / to treat falsehood / with complaisance // Back left: 'My own mind is my / own church what- / ever is my right as / a man is also the / right of another / And it becomes my / duty to gaurantee / as well as possess / Why do men con- / tinue to practice / on themselves the / absurdities they / despise in others' // Back right: 'It is necessary to / the happiness of / man that he be men- / tally faithful to / himself: I believe / in the equality of / man. I believe that / religious duties con- / sist in doing just- / ice loving mercy / and endeavouring / to make our fellow / creatures happy.' // Foot at rear: 'World Citizen / Englishman by birth - French citizen by decree / American by adoption' 

Description (physical)

 Larger than life-size gilded statue of Thomas Paine wearing a wig and period dress standing on a classical plinth set on a single-step base. The figure is in an animated standing pose with an outstretched right hand holding a quill pen and a down-stretched left hand holding the book 'Rights of Man' upside-down 

Description (iconographical)

 Paine is represented as a writer and internationalist - the globe signifying his status as 'World citizen'. Given the revolutionary nature of his ideas the siting of the statue outside the King's House is usually taken to be ironic. The upside-down book is a conceit intended to provoke discussion and debate. The tradition of Paine statues being gold and erected in every free-thinking city derives from a probably apocryphal suggestion by Napoleon intended as flattery. The commission for Thetford was prompted by members of the USAAF 388th Bomber Group, who had flown B17 Flying Fortresses out of nearby Knettishall for 2 years. They knew that Thomas Paine was born in Thetford and named one of their B-17's Tom Paine with the inscription "Tyranny like Hell is not easily conquered." After the war they worked with the Thomas Paine Association to raise the funding for the Thetford statue (see under Coney Weston). Revised 9/6/2007 

Photographs

 Date taken:  19/12/1976
Date logged:  13/6/2006

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  12/6/2006

Inspected by:
David Hulks

Sources and References

 BOE p. 718 / A. Mee (1972) The King's England: Norfolk, London: Hodder & Stoughton pp. 304-6 / A. Meltzer (1996) I couldn't Paint Angels: Sixties Years of Commonplace Life and Anarchist Agitation, Ch. 7: 'The Thetford Pain' online at www.spunk.org accessed 8-Jun-07 / Thomas Paine Trail (undated) leaflet produced by the Thetford Tourism and Heritage Partnership / www.thomaspainesociety.org/mission.html accessed 9-Jun-07 

Database

 Date entered:  12/6/2006

Data inputter:
David Hulks and Richard Cocke