Swavesey
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
lying on the Greenwich Meridian in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with an approximate population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
of 2,480. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and 3 miles south east of St. Ives
St Ives, Cambridgeshire
St Ives is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England, around north-west of the city of Cambridge and north of London. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Huntingdonshire.-History:...
.
Listed as Suauesye in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, the name Swavesey means "landing place (or island) of a man named Swaef".
History
Swavesey, forming a historical parish of 3982 acres on the border with HuntingdonshireHuntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
lies on a narrow clay ridge rising to 18 metres above sea level at one time surrounded by fenland. The village was of importance during the early Middle Ages as the centre of a large 11th-century estate. A castle was built here in the late 11th or early 12th century, though is believed to have been derelict by 1200. Swavesey served as a port and subsequent market town and was fortified at the end of the 12th century.
An alien priory was founded in Swavesey shortly after the Norman Conquest, possibly replacing a Saxon minster
Minster
Minster could mean:*Minster *Minster Machine CompanyMinster could also refer to:*Minster, part of Forrabury and Minster*Minster, Ohio*Minster, Swale*Minster-in-Thanet...
.
Roman pottery has been found in the parish.
The village motto is "Steadfast in Work and Play".
Church
There was already a church in Swavesey at the time of the Norman Conquest, possibly a minsterMinster
Minster could mean:*Minster *Minster Machine CompanyMinster could also refer to:*Minster, part of Forrabury and Minster*Minster, Ohio*Minster, Swale*Minster-in-Thanet...
, when Alan, Count of Richmond, granted it to the Abbey of St Sergius and St Bacchus in Angers
Angers
Angers is the main city in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France about south-west of Paris. Angers is located in the French region known by its pre-revolutionary, provincial name, Anjou, and its inhabitants are called Angevins....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The Abbey founded an alien priory there by 1086, but the priory was awarded to Alan la Zouche, lord of Swavesey manor, by the start of the 14th century.
The present parish church in Swavesey, dedicated to St. Andrew since the 11th century, has a double aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
aspect to its nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
. The east window in the Lady Chapel contains a 1967 Tree of Jesse
Tree of Jesse
The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the Ancestors of Christ, shown in a tree which rises from Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David; the original use of the family tree as a schematic representation of a genealogy...
by Francis Skeat
Francis Skeat
Francis Walter Skeat is an English glass painter who has created over 400 stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals, both in England and overseas. Skeat is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, and a member of the Art Workers...
. The present building has parts dating from the 11th century, but was substantially improved over the following four centuries.
A Unitarian chapel was built in 1831 on the corner of School Lane and High Street, and the congregation moved to a new Baptist chapel in 1869. The original Unitarian chapel was bought by a group of Methodists
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
and served as their place of worship until it was converted into a bungalow in 1934.
Transport
The railway line from CambridgeCambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
to St. Ives
St Ives, Cambridgeshire
St Ives is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England, around north-west of the city of Cambridge and north of London. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Huntingdonshire.-History:...
which passed through Swavesey was opened in 1847 and closed in 1970, but has reopened as the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
Cambridgeshire Guided Busway
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway , branded the busway , is a public transport scheme connecting the population centres of Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives in the English county of Cambridgeshire...
.
The parish's north border is formed by the River Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
, formerly an important transport link. The parish's south west border runs along the Via Devana
Via Devana
The Via Devana was a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east to Chester in the north-west. Both were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the main reason the road was constructed was military rather than civilian. The Latin name for Chester is Deva...
, the old Roman road, that now forms the A14
A14 road
The A14 is a major road in England, running from the Port of Felixstowe to the Catthorpe Interchange, the junction of the M1 and M6 motorways near Rugby. The road forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E24 and E30....
.
Village life
Farming is the main industry in and around Swavesey, although most residents commute to work. A sail-less windmillWindmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
stands in fields near the village.
There are 3 pubs listed in the village in 1765 and 8 by the early 19th century. By the late 19th century this number had risen to 16, but dropped to 8 by 1912, and only 3 by 1960. Since then the only
public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in the village centre has been the White Horse Inn, open since at least 1765, and adjacent to the village post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
and shop. Notable former pubs include the Rose and Crown on the corner of Boxworth End and Rose and Crown Road which was open by 1765 but closed in the 1880s. The Black Horse on the corner of High Street and Black Horse Lane served from around 1777 until 1910. The Swan (later the Swan with Two Necks) on Station Road was open from around 1777 to 1917. The Blue Bell was active from the late 18th century until around the Second World War. And the George and Dragon also opened in the late 18th century and closed in the first years of the 20th century. The village's post office opened in the 1850s.
Swavesey has a village magazine called "The Meridian".
The MG Owners' Club has its UK headquarters just outside the village and offer servicing for all models of the famous British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
MG
MG (car)
The MG Car Company is a former British sports car manufacturer founded in the 1920s by Cecil Kimber. Best known for its two-seat open sports cars, MG also produced saloons and coupés....
brand of sports car
Sports car
A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....
s and classic car
Classic car
A classic car is an older car; the exact meaning is variable. The Classic Car Club of America maintains that a car must be between 20 and 40 years old to be a classic, while cars over 45 years fall into the Antique Class.- Classic Car Club of America :...
s.
Education
There are two schoolSchool
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s in Swavesey, Swavesey Primary School, which claims to be the only school in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to lie on the meridian
Meridian (geography)
A meridian is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface from the North Pole to the South Pole that connects all locations along it with a given longitude. The position of a point along the meridian is given by its latitude. Each meridian is perpendicular to all circles of latitude...
, and Swavesey Village College
Swavesey Village College
Swavesey Village College is a village college in the village of Swavesey in south Cambridgeshire. As of 2010 the school has around 1,200 students. The school was officially opened on 14 November 1958...
, a secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
opened in 1958. Swavesey Village College (ages 11–16) has an intake from surrounding villages like Over
Over, Cambridgeshire
Over is a large village near the River Great Ouse in the English county of Cambridgeshire, just east of the Prime Meridian.The parish covers an area of approximately...
, Bar Hill
Bar Hill
Bar Hill is a purpose-built village with a population of 4,000 about 4 miles northwest of Cambridge, England on the A14 road.The Prime Meridian passes just to the west of Bar Hill.-History:...
, Longstanton
Longstanton
Longstanton is a village in South Cambridgeshire, England, 6 miles northwest of Cambridge city centre.-History:For most of its history Longstanton was split into two parishes: the larger Long Stanton All Saints to the north and the smaller Long Stanton St. Michael to the south...
, Fenstanton
Fenstanton
Fenstanton – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village near Hemingford Grey two miles south of St Ives lying on the south side of the River Ouse....
and more. The school uses a vertical tutor system.