Swaffham is an attractive market town, gateway to the beautiful sandy landscapes of Breckland. It’s where Edwardian explorer Howard Carter spent much of his childhood, before discovering ‘wonderful things’ in Tutankhamun’s Ancient Egyptian tomb in 1922. But there’s another character celebrated all over Swaffham. You’ll find him carrying his pedlar’s pack, carved on a wooden pew in the medieval Church of St Peter and St Paul.

Local folklore tells of John Chapman, a pedlar who lived in ‘Soffham’. One night he dreamed he’d meet a man on London Bridge who’d make him rich. So he tramped more than a hundred miles to London and waited. And waited. Days passed. No-one spoke to him.

Suddenly, as if by magic a shopkeeper appeared. ‘What on earth are you doing?’ he asked. The pedlar described his dream. ‘You’re on a fool’s errand boy!’ he said, rocking with mirth. ‘Imagine I dreamed of a John Chapman from ‘Soffham’ and hoped there’d be treasure buried under the apple tree in his garden. I’d be mad to travel all that way. Go home!’ The shopkeeper was strangely familiar. John thanked him, hastened home and dug under his tree. After that day John Chapman was a wealthy man, a travelling pedlar no more.

Swaffham remembers the legendary pedlar everywhere from the local football club to cafés on the High Street. If you visit the popular Saturday market, pop into the church. Who knows, maybe the Swaffham pedlar will share his marvellous luck!