SWINESHEAD
Swineshead was formerly in Huntingdonshire,
but in 1888 it was transferred to Bedfordshire, to
which county it has always geographically belonged.
There are 1,353½ acres in the parish, of which
405½ are arable land, 551 permanent grass and
120¾ woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The soil is loam
and gravel, and the subsoil mainly blue galt. The
chief crops grown are wheat, barley, beans and peas.
The main part of this parish has a level surface, but
on the eastern border, where the road from Yelden
enters it, there is a considerable rise, while the land
also rises slightly to the northward. The parish is
well wooded, Swineshead and Spanoak Woods in the
northern portion covering a considerable area. There
is also a small wood called Tarbags in the south-east,
forming a part of Melchbourne Park.
The village is in the west of the parish and lies
low. The houses of which it consists are mostly
old, the Three Horse Shoes Inn dating from the
early 17th century. The cottages are of brick and
timber, with tiled and thatched roofs. The present
rectory, a modern building, is on the south of the
road as it enters the village from the west. The
former rectory, now used as a farm-house, is an
ancient plastered building of brick and timber
opposite the church. When it was undergoing
restoration in 1864 a copy of the Solemn League
and Covenant (signed by the then rector of Swineshead) was discovered in the roof, where perhaps
it may have been hidden by the cautious rector
of the time. (fn. 2)
The Manor Farm is new, but in a field adjacent
is a 16th-century brick building, now converted
into cottages, with traces of a moat.
There is a Wesleyan chapel in Swineshead.
Swineshead was inclosed by Act of Parliament in
1803. (fn. 3)
MANORS
In 1086 the men of Huntingdonshire
swore that King Edward gave Swineshead to Earl Siward of Northumbria
(c. 1055) with sake and soke, 'save that (the men)
paid geld in the hundred and went against the enemy
with them.' (fn. 4) This entry is of high importance, for
it suggests that the men of an immunist would
normally pay their geld in his manor as well as follow
his banner to the fyrd. Instead of passing to Waltheof
son of Siward, it would seem that this property
became annexed as sokeland to Earl Harold's manor
of Kimbolton, and in 1086 3½ hides were held of
that soke, then in the possession of William de
Warenne, by a certain Eustace, who is probably the
well-known Sheriff of Huntingdonshire. From 1227
to about 1293 (fn. 5) it was held of the Bohun family,
Earls of Hereford and Essex, but about the latter year
the Bohuns became seised of the property, and hence-forward it was held in chief of the king. (fn. 6) The earliest
tenants of whom mention has been found bear the
name of the manor. Walter de Swineshead in 1163
is recorded as owing 2 marks for a trespass in the
king's forests (fn. 7) ; possibly this is the same Walter de
Swineshead who granted land to the priory of Chicksands. (fn. 8) Another Walter de Swineshead was one of
the jurors summoned for the determination of the
boundaries of the king's Huntingdonshire forest in
1244. (fn. 9) It then reverted to Humphrey de Bohun
Earl of Hereford and Essex, the overlord, who
granted it for a term of years to Geoffrey de
Skeffington, (fn. 10) from whom it passed to Isabel la
Erchtdehene, who in 1276 sublet it to William de
Castre for four years. (fn. 11) In 1279 Walter son of Ralf
de Swineshead was a minor, and William de Castre
as his guardian held the Swineshead property as one
knight's fee. (fn. 12) No further mention has been found of
Walter, but in 1290 his mother Isabella sued the
Prior of Huntingdon and Peter de Herdwick for
pasturing live stock on land of hers in Swineshead,
which they claimed to be common land. (fn. 13) Three
years later, on the outlawry of Robert de Swineshead, probably a brother of Walter, for felony, the
manor of Swineshead came into the king's hands
for a year and a day. (fn. 14) By 1294 it had reverted to
Humphrey de Bohun, who, on his departure for
Gascony on the king's service, in that year granted it
(here assessed at 2 carucates) for life to Bartholomew
de Enfield, who was accompanying him. (fn. 15) The
reversion of the manor was conveyed in 1315 by the
said Humphrey to his son William de Bohun, afterwards Earl of Northampton. (fn. 16) The further history
of this manor is until 1610 the same as that of
Hardwick Manor in Tilbrook parish (q.v.). In
1610 Sir James Wingfield received a lease of Swineshead, (fn. 17) while five years later the reversion was
granted to Sir Henry Montagu. (fn. 18) Sir Henry was in
1626 created first Earl of Manchester (fn. 19) ; his son
Edward, the well-known Parliamentarian general,
succeeded him, whilst his grandson Charles, afterwards first Duke of Manchester, (fn. 20) was lord of Swineshead Manor in 1684. (fn. 21) The
manor has remained in the
hands of the Dukes of Manchester down to the present
day.
In 1086 Tursa held half a
hide in Swineshead of Eustace
the sheriff. (fn. 22) It is probable
that this land was later
merged in the larger holding
that Eustace held of William
de Warenne, and followed the
same descent as the manor of
Swineshead (q.v.).
Montagu, Duke of Manchester. Argent a fesse indented gules of three points in a border sable for Montagu, quartered with Or an eagle vert for Monthermer.
Swineshead was within the
metes of the king's forest of
Huntingdonshire. (fn. 23) As mentioned above, Walter de
Swineshead was in 1163 fined
2 marks for trespassing therein. (fn. 24) King John granted
the forest of Swineshead with all forest rights to
Geoffrey Fitz Piers Earl of Essex. (fn. 25) In 1279 the
wood that formed part of the demesne of Swineshead
Manor was stated to be a league in circumference. (fn. 26)
An annual forest court called 'Swanimote' was appurtenant to the manor, (fn. 27) and was usually held in
Hardwick Wood. (fn. 28) William de Bohun Earl of
Northampton was granted rights of free warren in
Swineshead in 1328. (fn. 29)
Walter de Swineshead granted to the priory of
Chicksands 80 acres of arable land with 3 acres
of pasture, which they held in 1279. (fn. 30) In 1535
the possessions of Chicksands Priory in Swineshead
were valued at 30s. (fn. 31)
The Prior of Huntingdon held 40 acres of arable
land and 5 acres of wood in this parish in 1279. (fn. 32)
The Swineshead possessions of this priory were
valued at the Dissolution at 30s. (fn. 33)
CHURCH
The church of ST. NICHOLAS
consists of chancel 23 ft. 10 in. long
by 13 ft. 8 in. wide, nave 42 ft. long
by 14 ft. 8 in. wide, north aisle 8 ft. 4 in. wide,
south aisle 8 ft. wide, and west tower 8 ft. square,
all internal measurements.
The church seems to have been begun about
1330, and carried through with one alteration, the
substitution of a west tower for one at first arranged
for at the north-west. It was probably finished
about 1360, the only later additions being the nave
clearstory and the vestry and passage at the east of
the north aisle. The chancel walling is of pebbles
and oolite rubble, and that of the rest of the church,
where not ashlar-faced, is of the oolite rubble alone,
with a few pieces of ironstone; the aisles have
plain parapets with a string of ball flowers and
heads beneath, and the clearstory is embattled.
The chancel is divided into two bays by narrow
buttresses of three stages, and in each bay is a
pointed window of two lights, with modern tracery
of early 14th-century style, except in the south-west
window, where the old tracery is preserved with the
original glass in the head of the window. All have
internal jamb shafts and moulded rear arches with
foliate or moulded capitals. The east window of
like style is of three lights, with no old work except
in the jambs and rear arch. On either side of it are
contemporary image brackets carried on human
heads.
In the north wall is a fine 14th-century tomb
recess with a moulded arch, the inner order cinquefoiled with feathered cusps and carved spandrels, and
shafts in each jamb with foliate capitals; through
the west end of the recess a shouldered doorway
opens to a narrow passage running westward outside the chancel wall to the vestry at the east end
of the north aisle. The passage has a low stone
roof below the sill of the north-west window, lighted
by a small quatrefoiled opening.
In the east jamb of the south-west window is a
trefoiled piscina recess, and the sill of the window is
stepped down to serve as sedilia. There is a plain
south doorway, and to the west of the south-west
window a small square-headed low-side window with
an internal rebate. The original chancel arch and
east wall of the nave have been taken away for the
insertion of the existing 15th-century screen, and a
chamfered arch spans the chancel just to the east of
the line of the destroyed wall. Its inner order
springs from corbels, one carved as a man, evidently
in acute internal discomfort, and the other an
unpleasantly realistic figure of a man who has driven
a sword into his body up to the hilt. The two-story vestry at the east end of the north aisle and
the passage to it are also works of this date.
The nave has arcades of three bays of two chamfered
orders, and a label with octagonal pillars and moulded
capitals and bases; in place of a second pillar on
the south side is a pier with responds, and the
springing of an arch on its north face; this was to have
been the south-east pier of the projected north-west
tower, which would have taken up the west bay of
the north aisle. The clearstory has four windows
a side, each of two trefoiled lights. The rood stair
was in the east end of the south aisle, and a second
doorway led from the loft to an upper room over the
east end of the north aisle. Probably both the
upper and lower rooms have served as vestries; in
the lower there are a piscina of 14th-century date
and a line in the wall east of it, showing that the
14th-century east wall of the aisle was some 6 ft.
westward of that now existing. The vestries were
lighted by single windows in the east wall, the upper
trefoiled and the lower square, and in the north wall
of the lower vestry is a blocked recess, probably once
a cupboard.
The north aisle has three square-headed north
windows with trefoiled lights and a doorway of two
continuous moulded orders. Under its north-east
window is a square locker. The north wall at the
west is 4 ft. thick, setting out on the outer face 16 in.
beyond the rest of the wall.
The east end of the south aisle is blocked by an
organ, behind which a central canopied niche is
hidden. In the south wall are three pointed
windows, each of two trefoiled lights, with a quatrefoil in the head, and the west window is a square-headed 15th-century insertion of two cinquefoiled
lights.
In the jamb of the south-east window is a piscina.
The south doorway is of two continuous moulded
orders with a crocketed niche above, and the south
porch is of the same date, with a chamfered outer
arch of two orders, the inner having moulded
capitals to its responds. On the east and west sides
are stone benches and small square-headed windows,
round which the string which runs under the aisle
windows breaks to form a label. The tower is in
four stages, with pairs of angle buttresses dying out
below the belfry stage, and a stair at the south-west.
It has a plain stone spire and a parapet of pierced
quatrefoils with gargoyles at the angles. The belfry
windows are in pairs—two-light windows with
trefoiled heads and a quatrefoil over.
Plan of Swineshead Church
The west doorway has continuous mouldings, and
over it a shallow porch with an embattled gable and
flanking pinnacles, and over its outer arch a small
trefoiled niche; above is a three-light window with
modern tracery of 15th-century style, and above that
is a square-headed trefoiled light. The stair is
lighted by one of the small cross-shaped slits common
in the neighbourhood.
The font at the north-west of the nave is octagonal, and perhaps coeval with the church. The
chancel roof is modern, but that of the south aisle is
probably original, with a moulded purlin running
its full length. The nave aisle roof is very plain,
but perhaps also old, and the nave roof bears a
date 1841, though much of it is probably 15th-century work, and marks on the purlins of the east
bay suggest fixing for a panelled ceiling over the
rood.
The screen is a pretty piece of 15th-century
design, with two traceried openings on each side of
the doorway and remains of tracery and colour in
the lower panels; against its east side are a set of
returned stalls, some of the arms and misericordes of
which, simple moulded brackets, are old.
Many of the 15th or 16th-century oak benches
remain in the nave, and the west door of the tower
is a good piece of original 14th-century woodwork,
with blank tracery in the head.
In front of the tomb recess in the chancel, and
probably turned out of it when the 15th-century
doorway was inserted, is a large Purbeck marble slab,
cut short at the west end, inscribed ' + RICHARD
AYTROP GIST IC [1 DEV] DE SALME EYT MERCI AMEN.'
There is also a 14th-century coffin slab in the
chancel floor with a cross.
There are five bells, of which the
first, second, third and fifth are dated
1629; the fourth is inscribed 'Joannes Dier hanc campanam fecit.'
The plate consists of a silver
chalice inscribed 'The Towne of
Swineshead,' a large pewter flagon
and a modern silver-plated paten.
The registers are (i) all entries
1550 to 1712; (ii) all entries 1713
to 1753; (iii) baptisms and burials
1754 to 1812; (iv) marriages
1756 to 1811.
ADVOWSON
The earliest
mention of the
advowson of
Swineshead Church occurs in
1279, (fn. 34) when it was the property
of Ralf de Swineshead. The descent
of it is the same as that of the
manor (q.v.).
The value of the church in 1291 was £4 13s. 4d. (fn. 35) ;
in 1428 it was taxed at 7 marks. (fn. 36) In 1535 the rectory
was valued at £13 3s. 2d. (fn. 37)
It is probable that the church underwent repair
towards the end of the 14th century, as Bishop
Buckingham notes a charge against some of the
parishioners of Swineshead, that they refused to contribute towards the fabric of the church, (fn. 38) whilst in
1398 Pope Boniface granted a relaxation to those
parishioners who contributed regularly to the conservation of the parish church. (fn. 39)
A quaint entry in Bishop Repingdon's memoranda
records how Joan widow of John Annesley, in an early
year of the 15th century, restrained the parishioners
of Swineshead from making offerings to the parish
church on the occasion of her husband's funeral. (fn. 40)
CHARITIES
This parish appears to be entitled
to participate in the charity of Joseph
Neale. (See under parish of Dean. (fn. 41) )