Swaton

Swaton is a hamlet and civil parish in North Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England, off the A52 road on the B1394. The name comes from Suavetone or Swaffa’s Farmstead. The nearest town is Sleaford. The Roman Car Dyke runs to the east of the village. Roman brick pits are still extant. The Eau river rises to the west and runs through the village until it joins the Forty Foot Drain. Prior to the draining of the Fens the Eau was navigable and a large inland port existed close to the current bridge.

In 1086 there were three estates in Swaton. Four bovates were sokeland belonging to Robert de Vescy, probably as parcel of his manor of Stenning in Holland, and these descended with the manor of Thorpe Latimer, to which its rents and dues were rendered throughout the Middle Ages, as a subsidiary element in the larger estate. A further carucate was constituted as a manor held by Guy de Craon, but it seems to have been subsequently absorbed into the major holding in the village. Assessed at eight carucates, the fee held by Colsuain dominated Swaton. Before the Conquest seven of the carucates had evidently constituted an estate of some importance, for they belonged to Auti, a king's thane, with the liberties of sake and soke, toll and team. This prominence, along with the franchises which are probably reflected in the existence of a prescriptive market and fair, seems to have survived the Conquest, for in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the manor was one of the main demesne fees of the de la Haye honour to which it passed in the reign of Henry I. In 1185 it constituted the dowage portion of Maud de la Haye, at which time there were three ploughs in demesne, 60 sheep, 10 pigs and a boar, worth the not inconsiderable sum of £30, and by 1275 the manor with all of its liberties of view of frankpledge, assizes, and gallows and tumbrell, was valued at £80 (5). It remained in the hands of the earls of Lincoln until Maud de Lacy granted the estate in her widowhood to the abbot of Barling for the service of one and an eighth knight's fees in 1322. The abbey retained the manor until the Dissolution when it consisted of a capital messuage, lands, a common, a horsemill, and windmill. The estate was subsequently granted to Robert Tyrwhit and remained intact until the nineteenth century. In 1240 William Longespee and his wife Idonea applied for and were granted a Royal Charter to run a Friday market in the village. This grant was unsuccessfully challenged by residents of Folkingham and Sleaford who feared it would damage their own Saturday and Monday markets.

Nicolaa de la Haye (born 1150), a former Sheriff of Lincolnshire in the 12th century is buried in the churchyard. Swaton Vintage Day is held each June. The town also hosts the annual World Egg Throwing competition. Egg throwing in this village started circa 1322 when the new Abbot of Swaton, controlling all poultry in the village, used them to provide eggs as alms to those that attended church. When the Eau was in flood these were hurled over the swollen river to waiting peasants.

External links

• St Michael's church
• Parish council
• World Egg Throwing Federation
• Churchview Equestrian