A couple of weeks ago, on a trip to see the roundy-roundy BTCC racing touring cars at Snetterton in Norfolk, I (Monty) took a slight detour via Swaffham in search of remnants of the traditional tale The Pedlar of Swaffham (as for example collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales [notes]).
In the Church there, you can find carvings of the pedlar and his dog.
The pew ends also have various other carvings, which makes me wonder whether there are stories attached to those as well…
One thing I’m rather regretting is not asking anyone from the Church, or elsewhere in the town, to tell me the story of the pedlar as they know it. It may well be there is some further localisation or elaboration of it. (Hopefully next time….!)
It also made me wonder about what statues or carvings in Isle of Wight churches might have interesting tales attached to the them. Suggestions, anyone?! Please let me know via the comments, or otherwise…
