Swinford (Swineford)
Description in 1871:
"SWINFORD, a parish, with a village, in Lutterworth district, Leicester; 1½ mile NE of Lilbourne r. station, and 5 ENE of Rugby. It has a post-office under Rugby. Acres, 1,690. Real property, £3,531. Pop., 402. Houses, 104. The manor belongs to four ladies. A Roman settlement and a Knights Templars preceptory were here. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £216. Patrons, the Co-Heiresses of the Braye peerage. The church is ancient. There are an Independent chapel, and a national school.."
John Marius Wilson's "Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales," 1870-1872
- The parish has a small cemetery on Catthorpe Road.
- The parish was in the Lutterworth sub-district of the Lutterworth Registration District.
- The 1851 Census for Leicestershire has been indexed by the Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society. The whole index is available on microfiche. The society has also published it in print.
- The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
Census
Year |
Piece No. |
| 1861 |
R.G. 9 / 2248 |
| 1891 |
R.G. 12 / 2490 |
- The Anglican parish church is dedicated to All Saints.
- The church dates from early Norman times (end of 13th century).
- The church chancel was rebuilt in 1895.
- The church seats 200.
- The Anglican parish register dates from 1741 (some sources give 1559).
- The church is in the rural deanery of Guthlaxton (third portion).
- The Congregationalists built a small chapel here in 1810.
- Civil Registration began in July, 1837.
- The parish was in the Lutterworth sub-district of the Lutterworth Registration District.
Swinford is a village and civil parish in Leicestershire, England. It is 87 miles north of London and borders on Northamptonshire along its southeast border. The River Avon separates this parish from Northamptonshire. Catthorpe parish is to the southwest and Misterton parish to the north. Leicester city is 17 miles to the north and Lutterworth is 4 miles northwest. The parish covers 1,633 acres.
If you are planning a visit:
- By automobile, take the M1 to where it joins the M6 motorway. The parish is just 1/2 mile to the northeast of this intersection.
- The nearest train service is probably in Rugby.
- There is a picture of an intersection of roads in Swinford at the Leic. villages page. I believe that is Chequers Pub in the distance.
- Stop in and visit the village's famous pub: Chequers Pub.
- This place was a Roman settlement.
- Most of the parish land was given over to pasturage.
- A large wind farm has recently gone up in Swinford. It was built under protest but the developers prevailed.
- There is no mention of a Manor House or Hall in the parish. The CAVE family had their seat at nearby Stanford in Northamptonshire.
- The national grid reference is SP 5679.
- You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has 2.5 inches to the mile scale.
- See our Maps page for additional resources.
- The name "Swinford" is from the Old English Swin+ford, or "pig ford". In the 1086 Domesday Book, the village is given as Svineford.
[A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 2003].
- This place was an ancient parish of Leicestershire and a modern Civil Parish as well.
- The parish is in the ancient Guthlaxton Hundred in the southern division of the county.
- You can visit the Parish Council website for current political issues. They will not help with family history questions. If the photo of the parish looks familiar, it is the same one from the Leic. villages web site.
| Year |
Inhabitants |
| 1841 |
444 |
| 1871 |
375 |
| 1881 |
403 |
| 1891 |
392 |
| 1901 |
306 |
| 1911 |
311 |
| 1921 |
339 |
| 1931 |
313 |
| 1951 |
368 |
| 1961 |
340 |
- A Public Elementary School (National School) was built in 1874 near the site of an earlier school. The new building could hold 84 children.
Follow this link to find help, report problems or contribute information.
[Last updated: 13-November-2011 - Louis R. Mills]
