Swainswick

Coordinates: 51°24′44″N 2°21′05″W / 51.4122°N 2.3514°W / 51.4122; -2.3514
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Swainswick
Avon and Somerset
FireAvon
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Somerset
51°24′44″N 2°21′05″W / 51.4122°N 2.3514°W / 51.4122; -2.3514

Swainswick is a small village and

civil parish, 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of Bath, on the A46 in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority, Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 265.[1] The village name was also spelled Sweyneswik and Sweyneswick in the early 13th to 14th Century.[2]

History

Britons, for whose existence there is little historical evidence, but legend holds that he returned to Britain from Athens with leprosy and was imprisoned as a result, but escaped and went into hiding. He found employment as a swineherd
at Swainswick and noticed that his pigs would go into an alder-moor in cold weather and return covered in black mud. He found that the mud was warm and that they did it to enjoy the heat. He also noticed that the pigs which did this did not suffer from skin diseases as others did. On trying the mud bath himself, he found that he was cured of his leprosy.

Another version of the story says that his pigs became infected and diseased and that his search for food for the pigs brought him to Swainswick, where a farmer advised him to look for acorns on the far side of the river (possibly the Lam Brook at the bottom of the Lam valley). He came to a place where the pigs began to wallow in hot mud. To entice them out, he climbed an oak tree, collected some acorns and made a trail out of the mud. As the pigs came out, he scraped them clean and found their skin was cleansed and cured.

Bladud jumped in and bathed himself in the mud. He emerged to find his skin clear and his disease healed. Bladud returned to the tribe where he later became King. Later, he sent his servants to Bath to establish a settlement, building a temple by the hot springs around which the City grew.[3]

It is possible that the name of Swainswick is derived from Sweyn Forkbeard (c. 960 – 3 February 1014), who along with his troops is said to have stayed in Bath in 1013 whilst conducting a full-scale invasion of Briton before becoming King, according to the contemporary Peterborough version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (also called the Laud Manuscript). The chronicles tell that "Then went King Sweyne thence to Wallingford; and so over Thames westward to Bath, where he abode with his army. Thither came Alderman Ethelmar, and all the western thanes with him, and all submitted to Sweyne, and gave hostages. When he had thus settled all, then went he northward to his ships; and all the population fully received him, and considered him full king."[4]

The

Dieppe and Paris. Thomas de Gournay was involved with the murder of Edward II at Berkeley Castle in 1327.[5]

Swainswick was part of the

Bath Forum.[6][7]

The 3 miles (5 km) £45 million A46 dual-carriageway Batheaston/Swainswick bypass opened in summer 1996.

Governance

The

playing fields and playgrounds
, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council.

The parish falls within the

Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Great Western Ambulance Service
.

Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of the

county of Avon.[8] Before 1974 that the parish was part of the Bathavon Rural District.[9]

The parish is represented in the

first past the post
system of election.

Religious sites

Church of St Mary

The

John Wood the Younger
and his wife.

Notable people

References

  1. ^ a b "Swainswick Parish". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  2. The National Archives
  3. ^ Self, Janice "Swainswick Tourist Information" aboutbritain.com
  4. ^ "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Part 3: A.D. 920 - 1014" The Online Medieval & Classical Library
  5. ^ Manco, J. (1995) "The Parish of Englishcombe: A History", pp. 2, 4.
  6. ISBN 978-1-171-40217-6
    .
  7. ^ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  8. ^ "The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995 " Archived 30 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine OPSI
  9. ^ "Bathavon RD". A vision of Britain Through Time. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  10. ^ "St Mary's Church". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2007.
  11. ^ Yorke, Philip Chesney (1911). "Prynne, William" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). pp. 531–533.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Swainswick.
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