The planting of a Liberty Tree is the latest event in Diss Museum's Tom Paine festival celebrating the bi-centenary of the death of the 18th century best-selling author.

The planting of a Liberty Tree is the latest event in Diss Museum's Tom Paine festival celebrating the bi-centenary of the death of the 18th century best-selling author.

At 11am on New Year's Eve, Paine's poem Liberty Tree will be read out as a tree is planted in Diss Park. It will be sited at the Denmark Street end, near where Paine worked as a staymaker in the 1760s.

Museum manager Basil Abbott said: “The planting is symbolic of the start of the main festival, the New Year and will help to publicise the visit of storyteller Hugh Lupton to the UR Church on 10 January, with his liberty tree presentation.'

The tree, a Crimson King, has been donated by Blooms of Bressingham.