Swanbourne
Swanbourne | |
---|---|
St Swithun's Church, Swanbourne | |
Swanbourne Station House (disused) | |
Location within Buckinghamshire | |
Population | 437 (2011 Census)[1] |
OS grid reference | SP802272 |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | MILTON KEYNES |
Postcode district | MK17 |
Dialling code | 01296 |
Police | Thames Valley |
Fire | Buckinghamshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
UK Parliament | |
Swanbourne is a village and
History
The village name is
A grant of land was made to Woburn Abbey in 1201.[2] The first vicar of the parish arrived in 1218 and the parish church was dedicated in 1230. The abbey was dissolved in 1538 and its lands were later sold by the Crown.[3]
Swanbourne people supported Parliament in the English Civil War. It was burnt down by Royalist troops in 1643.[2] The Aylesbury–Buckingham turnpike road through Swanbourne opened in 1722. Common lands were enclosed in 1762–1763 and divided among 50 landowners.[3]
Swanbourne House was bought in 1798 by
Swanbourne House is still owned by the Fremantle family trust, but it is let to the private Swanbourne House School. The present head of the family is Commander
There was an agricultural strike in Swanbourne in 1873, led by some members of the Primitive Methodist Chapel, who had joined the National Agricultural Labourers' Union.
Attached to the village is the hamlet of Nearton End.
Schools
The first Swanbourne school was founded in 1712 under the will of brothers William and Nicholas Godwin.[2][6]
The present Swanbourne Church of England School in Winslow Road is a mixed,
Swanbourne House School is a coeducational infants' and
The private Ashbourne Day Nursery is also in Winslow Road.[11]
Churches
St Swithun's Anglican Church, a Grade II* historic listed building, stands at the east end of the village, opposite Swanbourne House. The nave, chancel and tower date from the first half of the 13th century. The north aisle was added in the second half of the 15th century and the tower rebuilt half a century later.[2] The church is in good repair. It contains some stained glass and a wooden ceiling, both probably dating from the 19th century. There are some medieval carvings and the remains of three medieval murals in the north aisle.[2] The tower has a ring of six bells and a sanctus. There are monumental brasses on the south and north sides of the chancel. The latter, showing Thomas Adams (died 1626) and his family, bears the baneful inscription, "Who in prime of youth by bloudy theves was slain, / In Liscombe ground his bloud ye grass did staine".[2]
Swanbourne Baptist Church in Mursley Road, was built in 1809, rebuilt in 1863 and closed in 1972, when it was converted into a dwelling.
Swanbourne Methodist Chapel is in Nearton End. The first place of worship was built for the Primitive Methodists in 1858. A new one superseded it in 1907. Formerly in the Stewkley Circuit, then the Leighton Buzzard Circuit, the church is now in the Vale of Aylesbury Circuit.[12]
Business and transport
Swanbourne has a general store and sub-post office in Mursley Road. Also in Mursley Road is a pub/restaurant named The Betsey Wynne, after Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle, the diarist ancestor of the Fremantles. It opened in July 2006 and specialises in English food and drink and self-grown produce,[13] for which it has won some awards.[14] It was taken over from the Swanbourne Estate by Oakman Inns and Restaurants Ltd in 2015.[15]
There are limited weekday bus services between Swanbourne and Winslow, Bletchley or Central Milton Keynes.[16]
Swanbourne railway station, on the Oxford to Cambridge 'Varsity Line', was open from 1851 to 1967. The station site is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the village, halfway to Little Horwood and about the same distance from Mursley. In summer 2020, the old station and platforms were demolished to clear the route for the new East West Rail.[17] The nearest station today is Bletchley, about 8 miles (13 km) away.
References
- ^ Neighbourhood Statistics 2011 Census. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
- ^ Victoria History of the Counties of England, A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1927), pp. 427–432.
- ^ a b History of Swanbourne: key dates
- ^ The Wynne Diaries 1789–1820. Edited and selected by Anne Fremantle. World's Classics. (London: OUP, 1952), pp. 297 ff.
- ^ "Why Iain Duncan Smith should look at himself before complaining about people living off the state". Daily Mirror. 26 October 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ Horn, Rev. T. (1854). "On Mursley-with-Salden". Records of Buckinghamshire. Aylesbury: The Architectural and Archaeological Society for the County of Buckingham. p. 183. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- ^ Three Schools site Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ^ Swanbourne House School.
- ^ ISBI: Swanbourne House School [dead link]
- ISBN 1-85821-400-9.
- ^ "Ashbourne Day Nurseries At Swanbourne". Ofsted. 25 April 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
- ^ History of Swanbourne: religion
- ^ A review. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
- ^ A list of awards Archived 19 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- ^ Shows all its sites.
- ^ LISTING OF BUS AND COACH SERVICES FROM SWANBOURNE Retrieved 5 October 2012.
- ^ "EWR2 Project Newsletter – Autumn 2020". sway.office.com. East West Rail alliance. October 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
Further reading
- Ken Reading, Swanbourne: History of an Anglo-Saxon Town. Available from Swanbourne village shop
- Frankie Fisher, We Reap Where They Have Sown – an account of Primitive Methodism in Swanbourne. Available from Swanbourne Methodist Church