Swaffham
Peddlars and Pots of Gold
Swaffham is the best-preserved Georgian town in Norfolk if not East Anglia the Town was a fashionable resort during the regency period.
Swaffham has a busy market usually on Saturday in the large marketplace where there is situated a market cross, this was built by Horace Walpole the 4th Earl of Orford who was the son of England’s first prime minister. It is a very grand cross actually a rotunda set on fine pillars and atop it all the Goddess of plenty Ceres.
The town grew rich with wool and was home to wealthy merchants this is reflected in the fine buildings.
Swaffham is associated with the tale of the Pedlar of Swaffham a certain John Chapman who reputedly dreamt that if he went to London he would hear something that would be of great value to him. When he got to London, he met a man on London Bridge who told him he was a fool.
The man told chapman that he himself dreamt of buried treasure in a pedlar’s garden in Swaffham but he was not a fool like chapman to give credence to flights of fancy. On hearing this Chapman hurried home, dug under a tree and sure enough found a pot of gold. The pot was later examined and the writing on it interpreted he dug again and found more money.
Chapman became a great benefactor and reputedly used some of the money he found to build the North aisle of the local church. This 15th century church of St Peter and St Paul it has a small spire that was added in the 18th-century but it is the magnificent Tudor aisle, which it is said to be the one, paid for by Chapman.
Activities in Swaffham
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