EARLY TIMES
Little is known of the pre-Roman history of the village. Although it is so close to the
Roman road, no evidence so far has been unearthed of a Roman settlement. Nearby on
Thurlby Moor a cache of broken Roman pottery shards has been dug up which would
suggest there was a small settlement there, and part of the former Roman settlement of
Crocolana is quite close at South Collingham where Roman coffins have been unearthed
in a field. Soon after the Romans invaded Britain in AD43, the Ninth Legion moved
forward from Colchester to a major fortification at Newton-on-Trent. In AD47 the Fosse
Way was built with a legionary fortress at Lincoln, its northern end. The Lincolnshire
area was soon peaceful, so that the fortress at Lincoln became unnecessary and the area
was administered from Leicester. The Roman villa at Norton Disney dates from this
period. Apart from a few Roman coins and other artefacts presumably dropped by the
many travellers along the Fosse Way, the only Roman remain found in Swinderby Parish
is the "Roman Stone" which was found in Romanstone Plantation. The Roman armies
were withdrawn from Britain in AD407.
During the 5th and 6th centuries migrants and invaders from Northern Germany and the
Netherlands entered Lincolnshire via the Wash and Humber estuaries. Lincolnshire was
divided into the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Lindsey in the north and Middle Anglia in the
south. The latter kingdom was later absorbed into the pagan Mercia.
There may have been a small Anglo-Saxon settlement at Swinderby, but if so it was
replaced by a Danish settlement when the invading Danes established the land of the
"Five Boroughs" (Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, Derby and Leicester) under the
Danelaw. More likely, the Danes established Swinderby peacefully as an in-fill village
between the Anglo-Saxon villages of Eagle (Anglo-Saxon Eycle) and Collingham. In the
early 10th century the Saxons reconquered the Danish lands so that by the time of the
Norman Conquest in 1066, Swinderby was under Anglo-Saxon rule.
The first firm historical evidence we have for the existence of Swinderby given in the
Domesday Book of 1086. It has two entries being recorded under the jurisdiction of
Eagle. The first entry records Countess Judith as having 49 freemen with 13 ploughs with
11 carucates taxable. The second entry states that Kolgrimr had one plough and one
carucate of land taxable. A carucate was as much land as could be tilled with one plough
and 8 oxen in a year.
Eagle was a more important village than Swinderby, because the Manor of Eagle was
owned by the Knights Templars, a military-religious order founded in 1118. King
Stephen (1135-1154) granted the Manor of Eagle to the Knights Templars to establish an
infirmary and home for their sick and old. Henry II (1154-1189) additionally granted
them the churches of Eagle, Swinderby and North Scarle. The infirmary/monastic
buildings were at Eagle Hall and traces can still be seen in the fields and buildings there
today.
In 1323 on the Pope's orders, the lands of Eagle and the churches were transferred to the
Knights Hospitaller, also called the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. The estate was
called a Bailiwick. The records of the Bailiwick of Eagle for 1338 show that the Vicar of
Eagle church received £5 6s 8d a year, while John. Vicar of Swinderby received only £2
0s 0d. For comparison, in 1540 after the order was suppressed, the Parsonage of Old
Eagle is recorded as worth 45s 0d. of North Scarle 40s 0d and Swinderby 65s 8d.
In 1406, Brother Henry Cronnale, Knight and Master of the Temple of Eycle, purchased
land at Morton from Simon Bassingham of Swinderby. In the following year he enclosed
the whole area and hamlet of Morton "with great ditches planted with hedges and
constructed a certain common way 20 feet wide from the north boundary of the field- and
so by Morton Oak as far as the highway between Lincoln and Newark". This common
way was the unmetalled road which runs from Eagle Barnsdale, skirting Tunman Wood,
through Morton and becoming the Avenue (formerly known as Half Way House Lane)
before joining the Fosse Way near the Halfway House public house. The "great ditches
planted with hedges" can still be clearly seen in Tunman Wood.
Just before these events, licence had also been granted to the Prior to build a chapel at a
place called "Swynderby More" and to erect houses and enclose ground around it. It is
not clear where this was, but it may have been at the Eagle Barnsdale end of the road or
possibly they were never built because of the arrival of the Black Death. At the time of
the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Order of the Knights Hospitallers was disbanded.
In 1540, the Commandery of Eagle was found to be worth £144 per year and it was given
to the Earl of Rutland and Robert Tirwhit by King Henry VIII on certain conditions: "Yt
ys to be remembrid that our Souereygn lorde the Kynge shall have after the deathe of
everye tenante within the lordshipps of the Eagle, Northscarle and Swinerby, the third
parte of cattells and Redy Monye, and also of clothe, ouer shapen or ouer cutte, hogges or
svvyne oonlye excpetid" An early inheritance tax! In 1539, the Manor and Rectory of
Swinderby were given to Richard Disney of Norton Disney and William Ryggs of
Clerkenwell, London. On 19th July 1544 they paid over £1,000 to the Court of
Appurtenences for property rights within the area.
One hundred years later, Sir Henry Disney was Lord of the Manor of Swinderby and he
organised the enclosure of Swinderby in 1640 and 1641. The Middle Ages were over and
the present pattern of Swinderby with its farms and surrounding fields was established.