A town hotel celebrating a famous Norfolk émigré is forging an even closer relationship with him by renaming its rooms in his honour.

Eastern Daily Press: Thomas Paine Hotel owner Gez Chetal with the newly named room, nameplates.Thomas Paine Hotel owner Gez Chetal with the newly named room, nameplates. (Image: Archant Norfolk Photographic © 2016)

The Thomas Paine Hotel, Thetford, is named after the Norfolk-born political activist and revolutionary, who emigrated to America and became one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Now the hotel is giving a higher calibre to its eight rooms by naming them after similarly influential Americans.

Gez Chetal, hotel manager, said: 'With Thetford rumoured as the birthplace of Thomas Paine, we decided to rename the rooms to have something to do with him.

'Thomas Paine was born here but he was very much American. It would not be the United States of America without him.'

One of the hotel rooms will be named after Paine himself, with the others renamed after fellow Founding Fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, inventor Thomas Edison and writer Walt Whitman.

The hotel's Franklin Brasserie also takes its name from American political history.

Mr Chetal, who took over the hotel in White Hart Street three years ago, said the move was an acknowledgement of Thetford's 'huge connection' to Paine.

The hotel itself houses a collection of items relating to Thomas Paine, supplied by the local library.

'I have children come here from Thetford Academy who I teach all about Thomas Paine.

'If you talk to any Americans they know about him because they were taught about him in school, but I'm trying to promote it here as much as I can. About 80 pc of our visitors come for Thomas Paine,' said Mr Chetal.

Have you got a Thetford story? Email bethany.whymark@archant.co.uk