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Swaffham is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 6,935 in 3,130 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of Breckland.〔Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). ''(Census population and household counts for unparished urban areas and all parishes )''. Retrieved 2 December 2005.〕 == History == Its name came from Old English ''Swǣfa hām'' = "the homestead of the Swabians"; some of them presumably came with the Angles and Saxons. By the 14th and 15th centuries Swaffham had a flourishing sheep and wool industry As a result of this prosperity, the town has a large market place. The market cross here was built by George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford and presented to the town in 1783.〔Ripper, B. (1979) ''Ribbons from the Pedlar's Pack'' p126 ISBN 0-9506728-0-7〕 On the top is the statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of the harvest. About 8 km to the north of Swaffham can be found the ruins of the formerly important Castle Acre Priory and Castle Acre Castle. On the west side of Swaffham Market Place are several old buildings which for many years housed the historic Hamond's Grammar School, as a plaque on the wall of the main building explains. The Hamond's Grammar School building latterly came to serve as the sixth form for the Hamond's High School, but that use has since ceased. Harry Carter, the grammar school's art teacher of the 1960s, was responsible for a great number of the carved village signs that are now found in many of Norfolk's towns and villages, most notably perhaps Swaffham's own sign commemorating the legendary Pedlar of Swaffham,〔(The Pedlar of Swaffham. ) ''More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1894)''. Retrieved on 2007-03-27〕〔(The Pedlar of Swaffham. ) ''Old City – Names and Legends''. Retrieved on 2007-03-27〕〔(Animation )〕 which is in the corner of the market place just opposite the old school's gates.〔(Literary Norfolk ) Retrieved 22 July 2011〕 Carter was a distant cousin of the archaeologist and egyptologist Howard Carter〔(Google books ) Retrieved 22 July 2011〕 who spent much of his childhood in the town.〔(Howard Carter ) Retrieved 22 July 2011〕 Until 1968 it had a railway station on the Great Eastern Railway line from King's Lynn. Just after Swaffham, the line split into two, one branch heading south to Thetford, and the other east towards Dereham. The railways were closed as part of the Beeching Axe, though the possibility of rebuilding a direct rail link from Norwich to King's Lynn via Swaffham is occasionally raised. The Swaffham Museum contains an exhibition on local history and local geology as well as an Egyptology room charting the life of Howard Carter.〔(Swaffham Museum ) Retrieved 22 July 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Swaffham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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