Swanbourne
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- For the suburb of Perth, Western Australia see Swanbourne, Western Australia; Swanbourne Lake is in the grounds of Arundel Castle.
Swanbourne is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, about two miles east of Winslow, three miles west of Stewkley.
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and possibly means 'swan stream'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 792 the village was recorded as Suanaburna.
The manor of Swanbourne used to belong to Woburn Abbey, but now belongs to the Fremantle family. The Fremantle family, originally from Aston Abbotts, have a strong naval tradition. Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle (1798–1890) had huge interests in Australia which is why there is a Fremantle, Swanbourne and Cottesloe named for him in Western Australia. He was later created 1st Baron Cottesloe. Various members of the Fremantle family now live in more modest houses in the village.
The large manor house still owned by the Fremantle family trust is now a prep school called Swanbourne House School.
The present head of the family is Commander John Tapling Fremantle, 5th Baron Cottesloe. Lord Cottesloe, a former Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire still lives in the village, as does his daughter Elizabeth, the Hon. Mrs. Duncan Smith with her husband Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative politician.
There was an agricultural strike in Swanbourne in 1873, led by members of the Primitive Methodist Chapel who were in the National Agricultural Labourer's Union (NALU).
Swanbourne has a shop in Mursley Road, St Swithun's Anglican Church and a Methodist Chapel in Nearton End.
A new pub called "The Betsey Wynne" opened at the end of July 2006. It is on the Mursley Road.
[edit] References
- 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
