D.A. Seaman, Optometrists

Today the Alpe family may be better known as saddlers but the member of the family to settle in Swaffham was a tea merchant. His son Robert Thomas was brewery manager for Morse and Woods for over 40 years, living at the Brewery House on Cley Road.

It was his son, James, who became a saddler but the connection with brewing and pubs remained in the family. James’ older son Robert Edward is listed in 1904 as a harness maker and publican at The Grapes, and James’ youngest son Frederick, for many years a brewer’s clerk, was landlord at the Greyhound for seven years in the 1920s.

No date for this picture but this is the Alpe family at the Grapes.
Image courtesy of the Alpe family

The Grapes has been described as the smallest pub in Swaffham with the bar at the back of the building down a dark passage. A lady visitor once described it as “cramped and full of old men in a fug of tobacco smoke.”

Image taken from The Swaffham History Group
booklet The Grapes.

The first landlord was Swaffham born William Howarth, a wine merchant and brewer, in 1839. Despite bankruptcy in 1842 he continued to work as a wine merchant based next to Mr Trundle until the 1870s.

He was followed by John Gardner in 1887, Maria Johnson in 1891-1900 and then Robert E Alpe from 1901 to 1916, landlord and harness maker.

In 1921 the manageress was Emma Moore, a widow. By 1930 The Grapes was also serving luncheons and teas and was awarded a plaque by the Cyclists Touring Club. It closed in 1953.

After The Grapes:

The Chocolate Box run by Stanley Rowe
William Hill, bookmakers
Currently Seaman Opticians