Thorley is less than one mile north from Blounts Farm in the adjoining parish of High Wych, the place where, in 1966, the criminal Harry Roberts was found by police during a long manhunt after he had participated in the Shepherd's Bush murders of three London-based policemen. He was found in a barn hiding under straw.[2] Roberts was familiar with the area as he had often visited it as a child with his mother.[3]
Landmarks
Thorley Church, dedicated to St James the Great, is a Grade I listed building. It dates to the 13th century and includes a Normanfont and a three-seat sedilia. The pulpit was designed by George Gilbert Scott. There is a one-thousand-year-old yew tree in the graveyard, which also has the grave of Daniel Defoe's sister. The graveyard is entered through a lychgate dating from the 1920s. The stocks and whipping post that stood in the graveyard until the late 20th century have now been moved to the Bishop's Stortford Museum. Samuel Horsley was rector of the Church from 1779 to 1782, following in the footsteps of his father John, who was rector from 1745 to 1777.[4] From 1594 to 1610, the rector was Francis Burley, one of the translators of the King James Bible.[5] A 16th-century Tudor barn in the adjoining farm was converted from pig barn to a church and community centre - called the St Barnabas Centre - in 1996 with the help of a £1 million endowment.[6]
Thorley has its own cricket club, Thorley C.C. The nearest local primary schools are Manor Fields Primary and Richard Whittington Primary, and Thorley Hill Primary which is on the same site as the Bishop's Stortford High School, all within and at the south of Bishops Stortford.
