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Swaffham in Norfolk County England History and GeographySWAFFHAM, a market town and parish in the southern division of the hundred of GREENHOE, county of NORFOLK, 28 miles (W. by N.) from Norwich, and 95 (N.N.E.) from London, containing 2836 inhabitants. This ancient town is situated on an eminence commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country, and is remarkable for the salubrity of its air, and the longevity of its inhabitants: it consists of four principal, and several inferior, streets; the houses in general are well built, and the inhabitants are well supplied with water from springs. A book club is supported by subscriptions among the clergy and gentry in the town and neighbourhood; a neat theatre has been recently erected, and an elegant assembly-room, on the market hill, was lately repaired and modernised, at a considerable expense; subscription assemblies are held monthly. On the north-west side of the town is a fine heath of some thousand acres, admirably adapted for the diversions of racing and coursing: greyhounds are annually entered here for the latter amusement, in the month of November, being subject to the same restrictions as race-horses. A charter for a market and two annual fairs was granted by King John to one of the Earls of Richmond, who were anciently lords of the manor. The market is on Saturday; and fairs are held on May 12th for sheep, July 21st, and November 3rd, for sheep and cattle. The market-place, a fine area surrounded by handsome buildings, contains a beautiful cross, erected in 1783, by Lord Orford, consisting of a circular dome covered with lead, supported on eight pillars, and crowned with a figure of Ceres, the whole being enclosed with palisades. The county magistrates hold a weekly petty session: the general quarter sessions are held here at Midsummer only, by adjournment from Norwich; manorial courts leet and baron are held annually in April or May. This town having formerly been held in royal demesne, the inhabitants are exempt from toll, and from being empannelled on juries, or any recognizances, except in the court of the manor. Anciently the Earl of Richmond had a prison in the town, and a house of correction, or bridewell, was erected in the 41st of Elizabeth, for the convenience of several adjoining hundreds. The New Bridewell was built about 1787, and will hold upwards of one hundred prisoners: attached to it is a chapel, the chaplain, who has a stipend of £200 per annum, being elected by the justices: a tread-mill was erected in 1822, and, in 1825, a handsome residence for the governor. The living is a vicarage, with the rectory of Thrixton annexed, in the archdeaconry of Norfolk, and diocese of Norwich, rated in the king's books at £14. 5. 10., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Norwich. The church, which is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is a splendid and spacious cruciform structure, with a stately and well-proportioned embattled tower and turreted spire, in the later style of English architecture; in the transept are three chapels: the vaulted roof of the nave, richly adorned with figures of angels carved in Irish oak, and that of the side aisles, rest on fourteen arches, supported on fine slender clustered pillars, and are surmounted by twenty-six clerestory windows; in the interior are several handsome monuments, and some brasses, bearing a variety of inscriptions; and in a library attached to the church is a curious missal. The north aisle is commonly reported to have been built by John Chapman, a tinker of this town; concerning which circumstance, there is a curious monkish legend, and there are various devices of a pedlar, and others representing a person keeping a shop, in different parts of the church, which are, in all likelihood, only rebuses on the name of Chapman, a conceit very prevalent in former times; the founder having probably been a person of that name, who was churchwarden in 1462. This church has lately received an addition of one hundred and seventy sittings, of which one hundred and four are free, the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels having contributed £50 towards defraying the expense. Here was anciently a free chapel, dedicated to St. Mary; and about half a mile distant, in a hamlet formerly called Guthlac's Stow, now Goodluck's Close, stood another, dedicated to St. Guthlac. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyan Methodists. The grammar school was founded by Nicholas Hammond, Esq., who by will bequeathed £500 for erecting a school-house, and £500 for the instruction of twenty boys in reading, writing, and arithmetic. A National and Evening school is supported by subscription. Several houses have been given, at different periods, as rent-free residences for the poor, for whom there is also a workhouse, which was the residence of the rector before the impropriation took place. John de Swaffham, a man of great learning, and a strenuous opponent of Wickliffe, who was raised to the see of Bangor by Pope Gregory II., was a native of this town. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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