Tributes to Sean Ready, Thetford River Group Founder, as plaque unveiled in his honour

Tributes have been paid to a Thetford environmental champion, including from his mum, as a plaque in his honour was unveiled on a new fish pass on the town, that he strongly campaigned for.

Sean Ready, 50, who was the founder of the Thetford River Group, died on November 11, 2022, from a heart attack at his Dane Close home.

A year to the day that he died, Thetford Town Council unveiled a plaque in his memory on the newly built fish pass, near Nun’s Bridges behind Ford Meadow in the town.

At the ceremony, which saw town and Breckland councillors as well as members of the Thetford River Group attend, councillor Terry Jermy thanked people for coming to ‘celebrate what Sean achieved in Thetford and throughout his life’.

The chairman of the town council’s amenities committee added: “We all know Sean for what he did in terms of pulling huge quantities of litter from Thetford’s river network, but I remember Sean because he came in every single month to our meetings.

“He would sit in the audience and in Sean’s own way would very determined and quietly lobby the council to do whatever we could for the river network and to support the environment.

“That is what I loved about Sean, he wasn’t loud, he wasn’t aggressive, but he was so determined to make sure that we did whatever we possibly could to help the river and we had so many conversations about this fish pass for months, if not several years.”

The councillor described Sean as being passionate about the river and the local environment and believed there was no one in the town who supported the river and the environment as much as he did.

The next tribute came from the Mayor of Thetford Town, councillor Stuart Wright who had known Sean for many years.

He said: “I would regularly see him pulling stuff out of the river and then he got even more momentum when he started the river group, which added a lot to helping him with the rivers.

“It is great to see the group is still going and it is a great legacy for Sean – he lived the river and we here in the town have all benefited from his work.”

Finally Lynn Ready, Sean’s mum spoke of her pride of what her son had done for the town’s waterways, the River Thet and Littlw Ouse.

She added: “I seemed to have always been around campaigners, with his dad Keith wanting more drop kerbs and the like in Thetford and then Sean taking up the mantle with the river.

“For someone who died at such a young age, he did an incredible amount with his life and for that I am incredibly grateful and so proud of him.

Lynn also spoke about Sean’s mental health issues, including being diagnosed with Asberger's, a form of autism, in his late 40s.

She said: “Even with his issues he did a hell of a lot with his life and that is a real testament to him to show anyone else who feels they may have mental health issues you can overcome them. He connected with nature and that really helped him with that.”