Swaffham
Encyclopedia
Swaffham is a market town
and civil parish in the English
county
of Norfolk
. The town is situated 20 km (12.4 mi) east of King's Lynn
and 50 km (31.1 mi) west of Norwich
.
The civil parish has an area of 29.57 km² (11.4 sq mi) and in the 2001 census
had a population of 6,935 in 3,130 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district
of Breckland
.
Swǣfa hām = "the homestead of the Swabia
ns"; some of them presumably came with the Angles
and Saxons
. In the Domesday Book
three lords were associated with Swaffham: Walter Giffard, with the largest manor; his tenant Hugh Bolebec, who held all of the Giffard land there; and Aubrey de Vere I
, who held a smaller manor at Swaffham which the Domesday jurors said Aubrey had seized without the king's permission. As the Bolebec estates passed into Vere hands through two marriages of Bolebec heiresses to Vere males in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the two manors were combined and held by the Vere Earls of Oxford for several centuries.
A Benedictine
priory for female religious was founded at Swaffham Bolebec between circa 1150 and 1163, probably by the Bolebecs. About 8 km
to the north of Swaffham can be found the ruins of the formerly important Castle Acre Priory
and Castle Acre Castle
.
By the 14th and 15th centuries Swaffham had a flourishing sheep and wool
industry As a result of this prosperity, the town has a large market place. The Market Cross here was built by George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford
and presented to the town in 1783. On the top is the statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of the harvest.
On the west side of Swaffham Market Place are several old buildings which for many years housed the historic Hamond's Grammar School
, as a plaque on the wall of the main building explains. The Hamond's Grammar School building latterly came to serve as the sixth form
for the Hamond's High School
, but that use has since ceased. Harry Carter, the Grammar School's art teacher of the 1960s, was responsible for a great number of the carved village sign
s that are now found in many of Norfolk's towns and villages, most notably perhaps Swaffham's own sign commemorating the legendary Pedlar of Swaffham
, which is in the corner of the market place just opposite the old school's gates. Carter was a distant cousin of the archaeologist and egyptologist Howard Carter
who spent much of his childhood in the town.
Until 1968 it had a railway station
on the Great Eastern Railway
line from King's Lynn
. Just after Swaffham, the line split into two, one branch heading south to Thetford, and the other west towards Dereham
. The railways were closed as part of the Beeching Axe
, through the possibility of rebuilding a direct rail link from Norwich
to King's Lynn
via Swaffham is occasionally raised.
The Swaffham Museum contains an exhibition on local history and local geology as well as an egyptology
room charting the life of Howard Carter.
Today the town is known for the presence of two large Enercon
E-66 wind turbine
s, and the associated Ecotech Centre. The turbines are owned and operated by Ecotricity
, and together generate more than three megawatts. One wind turbine, an Enercon E66/1500 with 1.5 MW generation capacity, 67 metres nacelle
height and 66 metres rotor diameter, which was built in 1999, has an observation deck just below the nacelle. These have now been joined now by a further eight turbines at North Pickenham
.
The centre hosted the 2008 British BASE jumping
championships; contestants jumped from the roof of the observation deck.
and East Anglia, Swaffham experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest Met Office weather station to provide local climate data is RAF Marham, about 5.5 miles west of the town centre. Temperature extremes in the Swaffham-Marham area range from 34.8 °C (94.6 °F) in August 1990, down to -16.7 C during February 1956.. The highest and lowest temperatures reported in the past decade are 34.6 °C (94.3 °F) during August 2003, and -10.3 C during January 2010..
series Kingdom
, starring Stephen Fry
. In Kingdom the town is called Market Shipborough
. The pub The Startled Duck in the TV series is better known as The Greyhound Inn in which the Earl of Orford
created the first coursing
club open to the public in 1776.
Kingdom's office is filmed in Oakleigh House, near the town square (formerly the house of the Head Master of Hamond's Grammar School), with the coastal scenes filmed at Wells-next-the-Sea
on the north Norfolk coast.
now avoids the town, using a northerly bypass opened in 1981. The A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road
still passes through the centre of the town on its north-south route, intersecting with the A47 at a grade separated junction north of the town.
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
and civil parish in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. The town is situated 20 km (12.4 mi) east of King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
and 50 km (31.1 mi) west of Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
.
The civil parish has an area of 29.57 km² (11.4 sq mi) and in the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
had a population of 6,935 in 3,130 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district
Non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially shire districts, are a type of local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan counties in a so-called "two-tier" arrangement...
of Breckland
Breckland (district)
Breckland District is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in East Dereham.Breckland District derives its name from the Breckland landscape region, a gorse covered sandy heath of south Norfolk and north Suffolk...
.
History
Its name came from Old EnglishOld English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
Swǣfa hām = "the homestead of the Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
ns"; some of them presumably came with the Angles
Angles
The Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
and Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
. In the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
three lords were associated with Swaffham: Walter Giffard, with the largest manor; his tenant Hugh Bolebec, who held all of the Giffard land there; and Aubrey de Vere I
Aubrey de Vere I
Aubrey de Vere was a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror in 1086 and also vassal to Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances and to Count Alan, lord of Richmond. A much later source named his father as Alphonsus...
, who held a smaller manor at Swaffham which the Domesday jurors said Aubrey had seized without the king's permission. As the Bolebec estates passed into Vere hands through two marriages of Bolebec heiresses to Vere males in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the two manors were combined and held by the Vere Earls of Oxford for several centuries.
A Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
priory for female religious was founded at Swaffham Bolebec between circa 1150 and 1163, probably by the Bolebecs. About 8 km
1 E3 m
To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 1 kilometre and 10 kilometres .Distances shorter than 1 kilometre-Conversions:1 kilometre is equal to:* 1,000 metres...
to the north of Swaffham can be found the ruins of the formerly important Castle Acre Priory
Castle Acre Priory
Castle Acre Priory, in the village of Castle Acre, Norfolk, England, is thought to have been founded in 1089 by William de Warenne the son the 1st Earl of Surrey who had founded England's first Cluniac priory at Lewes in 1077. The order originated from Burgundy...
and Castle Acre Castle
Castle Acre Castle
Castle Acre Castle is the remains of a motte-and-bailey castle, with extensive earthworks, at Castle Acre, in the English county of Norfolk . It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a Grade I listed building....
.
By the 14th and 15th centuries Swaffham had a flourishing sheep and wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
industry As a result of this prosperity, the town has a large market place. The Market Cross here was built by George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford
Baron Walpole
Baron Walpole, of Walpole in the County of Norfolk, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. The holders of the peerage also held the titles of Baron Walpole, of Houghton in the County of Norfolk, Viscount Walpole and Earl of Orford from 1745 to 1797, the title of Earl of Orford from 1806 to...
and presented to the town in 1783. On the top is the statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of the harvest.
On the west side of Swaffham Market Place are several old buildings which for many years housed the historic Hamond's Grammar School
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
, as a plaque on the wall of the main building explains. The Hamond's Grammar School building latterly came to serve as the sixth form
Sixth form
In the education systems of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and of Commonwealth West Indian countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Jamaica and Malta, the sixth form is the final two years of secondary education, where students, usually sixteen to eighteen years of age,...
for the Hamond's High School
Hamond's High School
Swaffham Hamond's High School is a secondary school in Swaffham, Norfolk, England.The headteacher, Mrs. Yvonne Srodzinski who took over from Robert Young in 2002, has been suspended as of May 2009. Stuart Bailey has been appointed as the Interim Headteacher....
, but that use has since ceased. Harry Carter, the Grammar School's art teacher of the 1960s, was responsible for a great number of the carved village sign
Village sign
A village sign in some areas of England is a symbol of a village's history, heritage, or culture. They differ from regular road signs in that they are decorative, with the designs usually depicting some aspect of the history of the village...
s that are now found in many of Norfolk's towns and villages, most notably perhaps Swaffham's own sign commemorating the legendary Pedlar of Swaffham
Pedlar of Swaffham
The Pedlar of Swaffham is an English folktale from Swaffham, Norfolk. The following text is taken from English fairy and other folk tales, 1906, which in turn refers to the Diary of Abraham dela Pryme, 1699:-Source:The Pedlar of Swaffham...
, which is in the corner of the market place just opposite the old school's gates. Carter was a distant cousin of the archaeologist and egyptologist Howard Carter
Howard Carter
Howard Carter may refer to:* Howard Carter , English archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb* Howard Carter , American basketball player...
who spent much of his childhood in the town.
Until 1968 it had a railway station
Swaffham railway station
Swaffham railway station was located in Swaffham, Norfolk. It was the junction for lines to Lynn, Dereham and Roudham Junction, and closed in 1968.-References:- External links :*...
on the Great Eastern Railway
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...
line from King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
. Just after Swaffham, the line split into two, one branch heading south to Thetford, and the other west towards Dereham
Dereham
Dereham, also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, some 15 miles west of the city of Norwich and 25 miles east of King's Lynn. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of...
. The railways were closed as part of the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
, through the possibility of rebuilding a direct rail link from Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
to King's Lynn
King's Lynn
King's Lynn is a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England. It is situated north of London and west of Norwich. The population of the town is 42,800....
via Swaffham is occasionally raised.
The Swaffham Museum contains an exhibition on local history and local geology as well as an egyptology
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
room charting the life of Howard Carter.
Ecotech Centre
Enercon
Enercon GmbH, based in Aurich, Germany, is the fourth-largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world and has been the market leader in Germany since the mid-nineties. Enercon has production facilities in Germany , Sweden, Brazil, India, Canada, Turkey and Portugal...
E-66 wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
s, and the associated Ecotech Centre. The turbines are owned and operated by Ecotricity
Ecotricity
Ecotricity is a green energy company based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England specialising in selling and generating wind power. It is built on the principle of heavily reinvesting its profit in building more of its own windfarms.-History:...
, and together generate more than three megawatts. One wind turbine, an Enercon E66/1500 with 1.5 MW generation capacity, 67 metres nacelle
Nacelle
The nacelle is a cover housing that holds engines, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. In some cases—for instance in the typical "Farman" type "pusher" aircraft, or the World War II-era P-38 Lightning—an aircraft's cockpit may also be housed in a nacelle, which essentially fills the...
height and 66 metres rotor diameter, which was built in 1999, has an observation deck just below the nacelle. These have now been joined now by a further eight turbines at North Pickenham
North Pickenham
North Pickenham is a village in the Breckland district of mid-Norfolk, East Anglia, England in the United Kingdom. Named after its leader Pinca, Pica or maybe Piccea with ham meaning homestead, it became a pagan Anglo Saxon settlement in the 5th century AD...
.
The centre hosted the 2008 British BASE jumping
BASE jumping
BASE jumping, also sometimes written as B.A.S.E jumping, is an activity that employs an initially packed parachute to jump from fixed objects...
championships; contestants jumped from the roof of the observation deck.
Climate
As with the rest of the British IslesBritish Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
and East Anglia, Swaffham experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest Met Office weather station to provide local climate data is RAF Marham, about 5.5 miles west of the town centre. Temperature extremes in the Swaffham-Marham area range from 34.8 °C (94.6 °F) in August 1990, down to -16.7 C during February 1956.. The highest and lowest temperatures reported in the past decade are 34.6 °C (94.3 °F) during August 2003, and -10.3 C during January 2010..
Kingdom (TV series)
In the summer of 2006, location filming was done in the town for the ITV1ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
series Kingdom
Kingdom (TV series)
Kingdom is a British television series produced by Parallel Film and Television Productions for the ITV network. It was created by Simon Wheeler and stars Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom, a Norfolk solicitor who is coping with family, colleagues, and the strange locals who come to him for legal...
, starring Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
. In Kingdom the town is called Market Shipborough
Market Shipborough
Market Shipborough is a fictional town and a civil parish set in the English county of Norfolk that is the central location for the ITV series Kingdom...
. The pub The Startled Duck in the TV series is better known as The Greyhound Inn in which the Earl of Orford
Earl of Orford
Earl of Orford is a title that has been created three times. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1697 in favour of the naval commander Edward Russell, who served three times as First Lord of the Admiralty. He was created Baron Shingay and Viscount Barfleur at the same time...
created the first coursing
Hare coursing
Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight and not by scent. It is a competitive sport, in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn a hare, rather than a form of hunting aiming at the capture of game. It has a...
club open to the public in 1776.
Kingdom's office is filmed in Oakleigh House, near the town square (formerly the house of the Head Master of Hamond's Grammar School), with the coastal scenes filmed at Wells-next-the-Sea
Wells-next-the-Sea
Wells-next-the-Sea, known locally simply as Wells, is a town, civil parish and seaport situated on the North Norfolk coast in England.The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 2,451 in 1,205 households...
on the north Norfolk coast.
Roads
The east-west A47 Birmingham to Great Yarmouth roadA47 road
The A47 is a trunk road in England originally linking Birmingham to Great Yarmouth. Most of the section between Birmingham and Nuneaton is now classified as the B4114.-Route:...
now avoids the town, using a northerly bypass opened in 1981. The A1065 Mildenhall to Fakenham road
A1065 road
The A1065 is a main road in the English region of East Anglia. It provides the principal road connection to parts of the west and north of the county of Norfolk from Newmarket and points south of there, including London...
still passes through the centre of the town on its north-south route, intersecting with the A47 at a grade separated junction north of the town.
Notable people
- Michael CarrollMichael Carroll (lottery winner)Michael Carroll , born in Swaffham, Norfolk, UK, is a former binman who won £9.7 million on the National Lottery in November 2002, aged 19. His biography written by Sean Boru, entitled Careful What You Wish For , was published by John Blake Publishing in October 2006...
, lottery winner - Howard CarterHoward CarterHoward Carter may refer to:* Howard Carter , English archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb* Howard Carter , American basketball player...
, archaeologist who discovered the tomb of TutankhamunTutankhamunTutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom... - Christopher Dawes, author of Rat Scabies And The Holy GrailRat Scabies And The Holy GrailRat Scabies And The Holy Grail is a book written by Christopher Dawes and published in 2005 by Sceptre Books in the UK and by Thunder’s Mouth Press in the US...
- Stephen FryStephen FryStephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
, actor and writer - W.E. Johns, author of the "BigglesBiggles"Biggles" , a pilot and adventurer, is the title character and main hero of the Biggles series of youth-oriented adventure books written by W. E. Johns....
" books - William MethwoldWilliam MethwoldWilliam Methwold , , was an English merchant and colonial administrator in India...
(1590–1653), born South PickenhamSouth PickenhamSouth Pickenham is a small village and civil parish in the Breckland district of mid Norfolk, East Anglia, England. It has an area of 758 hectares and a population of 101 in 40 households as of the 2001 census....
, East India CompanyEast India CompanyThe East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
merchant - Sir Arthur Knyvet WilsonArthur Knyvet WilsonAdmiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson VC, GCB, OM, GCVO was an English Admiral and briefly First Sea Lord who was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry during the war in Sudan...
, (1842–1921), First Sea LordFirst Sea LordThe First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...