Thetford is joining Keep Britain Tidy’s army of Litter Heroes for the Great British Spring Clean, from 13th to 29th March 2026.
Last year, About Thetford featured the town’s litter picking groups who keep their feet on dry land, but litter and pollution are also ever-present issues in Thetford’s rivers.
Thetford River Group has been patrolling the town’s waterways for over ten years, collecting rubbish and monitoring the health of the river’s delicate ecosystem.
“We want to give a much-needed nod to our late founder, Sean Ready, who started things around 2015,” said Group Leader, Roseanne Gough. “With him living by the river, he got a boat and quickly realised there was a real issue with rubbish in Thetford’s rivers. Sean began regularly cleaning both rivers, soon joined by Clare and then, shortly after, Roseanne to help with the work. From there, the Thetford River Group steering circle was formed.”
“Many brainstorming sessions followed, often over coffees at The Riverside Kiosk or on walks along the rivers. Our group’s Facebook page grew steadily, alongside new activities such as Riverfly Monitoring and water quality testing. New members joined and the group prospered, doing some amazing work to enhance the environment and its biodiversity,” Roseanne continued.
“One significant project was lobbying and pushing for a new fish pass on the Thet, working alongside the Environment Agency and Thetford Town Council. Sadly, Sean did not get to see the permanent pass installed in the summer after his death in 2023. It remains a big part of his legacy and there is now a plaque on the fish pass bridge.”
Thetford’s rivers are chalk streams – according to research by the WWF, there are only 200 waterways of this kind in the world. The River Group keep a close eye on the plants and animals that call it home, including eight invertebrates that they monitor alongside riverflies on the BTO’s Nunnery Lakes Reserve. They were also vocal advocates against a pollution incident in October 2025, which saw the Thet filled with foam.
“We’ve welcomed many new members in recent years and recently put out a Facebook post to encourage more people to get involved, which had a good response,” said Roseanne.
If you have some spare time and would like to help, please email thetfordrivergroup@gmail.com or message Thetford River Group on Facebook.
The Great British Spring Clean is run by the charity Keep Britain Tidy and is the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign. Since 2016, volunteers have pledged to pick more than 4.5 million bags of litter across the country. Find more information at: www.keepbritaintidy.org
If you’d like to join in with the Great British Spring Clean but would prefer to stay out of the water, Thetford has several litter picking groups to get involved with including:
For information on NRERA litter picks (pictured) on the Norwich Road and Admirals estates, email Mac McDonald on:
nrera.thetford@gmail.com
For information on CAWRA litter picks on the Cloverfields estate, visit:
www.cawrathetford.org.uk
Thetford Town Council is running litter picks throughout the Great British Spring Clean, including the Abbey Estate on 18th March, Barnham Cross on 19th March, Croxton Road on 20th March and St John’s and Redcastle on 25th March. For more information please check Thetford Town Council’s Facebook.
