Boots Chemist

The first chemist we know of in Swaffham is Jacob Finch who ran a shop where today Boots stands. We know that he paid a land tax of £6 in 1796, had an apprentice in 1801 and was selling “the cheapest cough and best medicines” with his business partner Mr Johnson in 1808. He died in 1840.

The chemist shop was continued by his son, also Jacob, but after the death of his mother in 1855 the business was sold to John Gardner, who died young. His widow married Arthur Brown and together they managed both the bookshop next door and the pharmacy. In 1861 we find Jacob Finch junior as a manure and cake merchant on the Marketplace. By 1871 he had added farms in Narford and Great Thorn(e)s to his portfolio and by 1881 had become a “gent, merchant and farmer employing 38 men and 6 boys”.

In 1884 the business was sold to Fred Christopherson and his brother Cornell – both chemists – but the partnership dissolved two years later and Fred continued to run the business until his death in 1926.

The business continued to be managed under the Christopherson name. By 1939 the manager, Jack Garlick, enlarged the business into optics and photography but died unexpectedly in 1942.

The next year the business was bought by Boots, and the company has continued to serve the residents of Swaffham and the local area to this day.