Puff n Stuff and Pedlar’s Hall Café

Late 18c. Now pair of shops. C20 shop display windows. Ground floor with applied timber 20c studwork. Grade II listed

The very first evidence of people living here is from maps in 1839 and 1845 when John Marriott (owner) and William Grant are listed as occupying houses, shops and a granary here.

By 1851 Jeremiah Chapman, also a shoe and boot maker, and his wife Clarissa Elizabeth (Webster) were managing “The Temperance Hotel” here. It was taken over in 1854 by Israel and Dinah (Bennett) Jakes.

At some time in the 1850s this building was the business premises of James Wenham, clock and watch maker.

About 1891 the hotel was being managed by Ann Elizabeth Walker. She died in 1899 and her two unmarried daughters, Isabella Ann and Emma Mary continued the business.

They were still running the hotel in 1911 but not in 1921 when the Temperance Hotel keeper was John H.Chapman from Southwold. We know that it was still a Temperance hotel (with twelve beds) in 1935 and in 1939 when George and Lillie Williams were proprietors.

By the time this photo was taken (unfortunately no date) it was no longer hotel, just a restaurant. The hanging sign now hangs in the Heritage museum and depicts the Pedlar of Swaffham.

At some time post-war the building was split into two and has remained so, with the Pedlar’s (Hall) Café to the north (now Nelson’s Nest) and a variety of shops over the years to the south, amongst them Finishing Touches, The Goldmine, The Minimarket, Swaffham Cane Basketware, Ruffles and now Puff’n’Stuff.