Swaffham Café 1

This section of the Shambles is marked by two paths into the interior

In 1845 no 146 was occupied by John Utting with a house and shops. In 1851 he was an ale keeper, master of the Assembly Rooms, tax collector, a merchant and a shoemaker master, whilst his wife, Ann, was a milliner and dressmaker. He died in 1854 but in 1861 Ann is registered as keeper of the Shire Hall (or did they mean Assembly Rooms?)

No.147 was occupied by widow Pymar. Perhaps this was where the postmaster Pymar lived. No.137’s occupant was James Sutton with houses and workshop but he cannot yet be identified.

We currently have no information on the build of this house but we do know that Charles Edwin Baines arrived in Swaffham in 1911 to set up a shop here dealing in china, glassware and ironmongery. He did not stay long. In 1921 he was no longer in Swaffham.

At some time John Francis Aldiss, grandson of William Aldiss who set up a draper’s store on the west side of the Marketplace in the 1860s, enlarged the family business by taking over the Baines store to introduce furniture.

The Aldiss firm closed in Swaffham in the 1970s. At some time during the Aldiss years the shop was remodelled roughly, but not exactly, to what it is today.

Thomas Peatling & Sons, Ltd; wine and spirit merchants traded here in the 1980s.

17 June 1810 – 12 February 1880

Sir William Bagge, 1st Baronet of Stradsett Hall, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom and MP for West Norfolk from 1837 to 1857 and from 1865 to 1880.

The Bagge Memorial Fountain was erected by subscription in what is now the Pedlar car park and unveiled by Lady Walsingham on 13 August 1883 in memory of the “baronet’s great personal worth and long public service”.

The stone fountain comprised a bust of Sir William, now in Swaffham Museum, two drinking bowls and a cattle trough underneath.

It was placed opposite Mr Day’s house because it was a favourite rendezvous of the Conservative Party in the elections contested by Sir William.

Swaffham was then the electoral administration centre for West Norfolk.

It was demolished as unsafe in about 1940.

The coffee shop and then the Swaffham Café have been here since at least 2009.