Swanwick

Swanwick is served by the Mobile Library on route 5, which stops in Swanwick on every fourth Tuesday.

Alternatively, the Alfreton Library is an excellent resource with a Local History section and a Family History section.

Various Aauthors, "Swanwick 1304–2010 – the Story of our Village", Lulu Press, ISBN: 9781447635031.

The Leabrooks Cemetery is just east of the parish. It was used by Swanwick, Riddings and Somercotes parishes. It opened in 1895 and is under the control of the Amber Valley District Council. If you cannot find your relatives burial in the Swanwick churchyard, look for them here.

Stephen McKAY has a photograph of the Leabrooks Cemetery on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2006.

David BEVIS has a photograph of the Leabrooks Cemetery Chapel on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2016.

David BEVIS has a photograph of the Leabrooks Cemetery gates on Geo-graph, taken in February, 2016.

The local Baptist Church has a small graveyard of its own. Peter BARR has a photograph of the graveyard on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2010.

• The parish was in the Alfreton sub-district of the Belper Registration District.
   
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
   

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew.
   
• In 1856 the Revd. John WOOD donated land for a church to be built in Swanwick.
   
• The church was built in 1859-60.
   
• The ecclesiastical parish was established in 1861.
   
• The church tower was newly constructed in 1903 as a memorial to Queen Victoria. It contains a clock mechanism with three dials.
   
• The church seats 450.
   
• Mike BARDILL provides a photograph of St. Andrew's Church on Geo-graph, taken in April, 2006.
   
• Alan HEARDMAN has a photograph of the Church tower on Geo-graph, taken in October, 2008.

• The Anglican parish register dates from 1861.
   
• The church was in the rural deanery of Alfreton.
   
• The Baptists had a chapel founded here in 1796.
   
• David BEVIS provides a photograph of the Baptist Church on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2009.
   
• The Primitive Methodists had a chapel built here before 1891.
   
• David BEVIS also has a photograph of the Primitive Methodist Church on Geo-graph, taken in January, 2009.
   
• The Free Methodists had a chapel built here before 1891.
   
• David HILLAS has a photograph of the Swanwick Methodist Church on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2015.
   

• Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
   
• The parish was in the Alfreton sub-district of the Belper Registration District.br />

Jane TAYLOR in Redcar has this announcement from the Derby Mercury of 3 October, 1804: "MISC: At the General Quarter Session of the Peace for this county, which ended here this day,- James CLARKE, convicted of having stolen a tub and a quantity of potatoes, from the dwelling house of Mr. George GODBER, of Swanwick, was ordered to be transported seven years; (this man has traversed the country, asking alms, and under that pretext has taken every advantage of pilfering wherever opportunity offered; all housekeepers will do well to guard against such like imposters)."

"SWANWICK is a hamlet, in the parish of Alfreton, about a mile and a half S.W. from that town. There are places of worship for baptists and Wesleyan methodists, and a free-school, erected and endowed in 1740 by Mrs. Elizabeth TURNER. Population returned with the parish."

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835]

Neil THEASBY has a photograph of the Village Sign on Geo-graph, taken in July, 2019.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Rosemary LOCKIE provides a transcription of the Swanwick entry under Alfreton from Pigot & Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire (1835).
   
• Ann ANDREWS provides a transcription of the Swanwick entry from Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland (1891).

• The transcription of the section for Swanwick from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin HINSON.

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Swanwick to another place.

• In the 1800s, much of the parish was pasturage.
   
• David SMITH has a photograph of the Steam Packet Inn on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2019.
   
• Trevor RICKARD has a photograph of the Swanwick Parish Jubilee Memorial on Geo-graph, taken in May, 2011.

"Swanwick Hall" is a brick mansion a little south-east of the village. It was built by John Turner in 1690, but was unoccupied in 1912.

The "Hayes" is a stone Manor on an eminence, and it was constructed in the 1850s as the home of Mr Fitzherbert WRIGHT. It was used for conferences, summer school classes and meetings. It is now the Hayes Conference Centre.

Stephen CRAVEN has a photograph of The Hayes on Geo-graph, taken in July, 1995.

David SMITH has a photograph of the Lodge and entrance to The Hayes Conference Centre on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2019.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SK404532 (Lat/Lon: 53.07451, -1.398435), Swanwick which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

• Swanwick Hayes, now a conference center, served as a prisoner of war camp for both German and Italian prisoners during World War II.
   
• Franz von WERRA, a Luftwaffe officer, escaped from Swanwick Hayes; he was recaptured at nearby RAF Hucknall, while trying to steal an aircraft.
   
• David SMITH provides a photograph of the War Memorial outside St. Andrew's Church on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2019.
   
• The "Ripley and Heanor News and Ilkeston Division Free Press" for 30 October 1914 reports:

RECRUITING AT SWANWICK
"Up to date 28 men have left Swanwick parish and (answered) the call of King and Country. Three of these Ptes T. BURGIN and L. STONE, of the Royal Field Artillery, and Samuel WALLER of the RAMC – are at the front. Private Lewis DOWNEE, who was sent home wounded from Mons, is now the depot of his regiment (Royal Munster Fusiliers) in Ireland."

The "Belper News" for 9 April 1915 reports:

BULLET THAT PASSED THROUGH HIS THIGH
"Private S WALLER, of the RAMC, a resident of Swanwick, who, as we have already announced, is wounded and in hospital, writes home as follows: –
“I expect you have received by postcard before this telling you that I have stopped a German shell. Many have burst close to me, and I have had some very narrow escapes, but one hit me at last. I am thankful to say that I am no worse, for it is nothing else with wonderful that I was not killed. I certainly should have been had it not be what I got in my pocket, for it could not have helped but have cut my heart out. I will save the things to show you when I get home. I shall be able to walk again in a few days. I have also had a bullet as big as a marble go right through my thigh, in one side and out the other. I will show it to you when I get home, as I shall keep it for souvenir. They found it in my trousers when they cut them off. But cheer up, for this tale sounds awful. I don’t mind this bit if it will get me home for a while again to see you all.

PS – you will have read in the papers of two airmen been killed, Lieuts. IRVING and MORGAN, I got them out from under their aeroplanes when they fell, just about half an hour before I got wounded."

Major and Honorable Lieut.-Colonel FitzHerbert WRIGHT resigned his commission in June, 1887, but was allowed to retain his rank. He served in the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters and he resided in this parish.

His son, Henry FitzHerbert WRIGHT, was commissioned as a captain in the 1st Derbyshire Howitzer Battery of the Royal Field Artillery in 1908. He saw service with the RFA in France from 1914 to 1917. He was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1927. He is the maternal great-grandfather of Sarah, Duchess of York, through her mother Susan BARRANTES. He died in 1947.

There are two Commonwealth War Graves for World War I and also two for World War II in St. Andrew's churchyard:

1. Frederick CHALLONER, priv., 4th Btn. Durham Light Inf., age 39, died 16 June 1918. Son of Matthew Ward and Mary CHALLONER.
2. Albert WAGER, priv., 2nd Btn. Grenadier Guards, age 35, 24 Sept. 1916. Husband of Martha Elizabeth WAGER of Swanwick.
3. Frederick TAYLOR, srgt., Pioneer Corps, age 45, died 25 Oct. 1942. Husband of Ethel TAYLOR of Somercoates.
4. James WEBSTER, priv., 10th Btn. Sherwood Foresters, died 26 Sept. 1940.

The name Swanwick is derived from the Old English "Swana" meaning herdsmen, and "wic" meaning a group of buildings.

The village is first noted in 1304 in Sir Thomas CHAWORTH's grants to Beauchief Abbey.

The name is pronounced "Swon-nick." The parish covers 965 acres.

• There is no evidence that this place was ever an ancient parish. It appears to have been only an ecclesiastical parish of the Anglican church. It became a modern Civil Parish some time in the 1900s.
   
• This place was partly in the ancient Scarsdale Hundred (or Wapentake).
   
• You may contact the Swanwick Parish Council regarding civic or political issues, but they are NOT staffed to assist with family history searches.
   
• District governance is provided by the Amber Valley Borough Council.

• Bastardy cases would be heard in the Alfreton petty session hearings.
   
• As a result of the 1834 Poorlaw Amendment Act reforms, this parish became a member of the Belper Poorlaw Union.

In 1863, Elizabeth ELLIOTT ,shopkeeper, Swanwick, widow, mentions:

1. that she is the relict of John ELLIOTT, FWK
2. son Joseph
3. son Job
4. James WILLGOOSE
5. Mary Ann wife of James WILLGOOSE
6. Sarah wife of Geo WHARTON
7. Margaret wife of John GREGORY
8. to my grand-daughter Elizabeth WILLGOOSE "best feather bed"
9. Thos. HANDBURY witness
10. Joseph MACHIN witness

Elizabeth TURNER had a school built in 1740 to provide education for 20 children from poor families. The school house is now a private residence.

A Public Elementary School was built here in 1888 for 147 boys, 142 girls and 197 infants.

David SMITH has a photograph of Swanwick School on Geo-graph, taken in March, 2019.

Swanwick also hosts the Swanwick School & Sports College.