The Hamond family
In the early 20th century the family let, and later sold, the market rights to the Swaffham Urban Council
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Market Place
Dorothy Smith
From 1944 until 1955, when the National Health Service was being set up, she was chairman of the General Nursing Council.
Dorothy Smith (1895-1991)I was born in Oakleigh House in Swaffham, the 5th of 10 children, and went to Miss Pegler’s “Swaffham Girls’ High School” where she became very adept at playing the triangle.
Her whole family was committed to the Swaffham Cottage Hospital and that is where she began her nursing career in 1909 as a volunteer. She was trained at Guy’s Hospital and soon became a staff nurse, then matron of the Middlesex Hospital. I was always a reformer and one of the first things I did was to move breakfast for the patients from 5am to 7am and insisted that the nurses had to have one weekend off a week as well as a day off.
From 1944 until 1955, when the National Health Service was being set up, she was chairman of the General Nursing Council. I went back to Guy’s as matron until I retired in 1953. I was honoured with a CBE that year.
Jack and Merle Boddy
Very early on he became immersed in the National Union of Agricultural Workers in Lincolnshire
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Howard Carter
He was invited to join a team of archaeologists in Egypt as a tomb painting copyist and soon developed a love for archaeology.
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Henry William Plowright
In 1869 the company began an engineering works on the Marketplace and continued to expand the business.
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Pedlar of Swaffham
The Pedlar of Swaffham is an English folktale from Swaffham, Norfolk.
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