Swainsthorpe is a village in the English County of

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It lies on the

A140 The A140 is an 'A-class' road in Norfolk and Suffolk, East Anglia, England partly following the route of the Roman Pye Road. It runs from the A14 near Needham Market to the A149 south of Cromer. It is of primary status for the entirety of ...

road, approximately 5 miles south of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, and just north of Newton Flotman. It covers an area of and had a population of 374 in 159 households at the 2001 census, the population reducing to 360 at the 2011 Census. The village had two Churches, St.Peter's and St. Mary's, the latter is now in ruins. The villages name means 'Sveinn's outlying farm/settlement'.

Facilities and amenities

St Peter's Church sits at the top of Church Road, the entrance to the village, and is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in

. It is part of the Tas Valley Team Ministry, alongside churches in Newton Flotman,

Tasburgh Tasburgh ( ) is a civil parish and a village in the south of Norfolk, England, located approximately 8 miles south of Norwich. It lies on the A140 road, north of Long Stratton and south of Newton Flotman. The River Tas flows nearby and Tasburg ...

, Tharston, Saxlingham and

Shotesham Shotesham () is a village in South Norfolk which lies approximately 5 miles south of Norwich. It sits next to Stoke Holy Cross and Saxlingham Nethergate in the valley of the River Tas. It covers an area of and had a population of 539 in 210 h ...

. In 2012, an £80,000 project to re-order the nave and north aisle of the church, providing more space for community events, began. Children of primary school age living in the village usually attend school in nearby Newton Flotman, while the nearest secondary school is Long Stratton High School. The village has a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, which was formerly known as "The Dun Cow", before reopening under a new management and a new name, "Sugarbeat", in July 2014. Bus services operated by

First Norfolk & Suffolk First Eastern Counties is a bus operator providing services in Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. It has seven depots which are part of five operating areas spread out across East Anglia. The five operat ...

and Simonds of Botesdale, provide regular transport links to

and

Long Stratton Long Stratton is a town and civil parish in Norfolk, England. It historically consisted of two villages; the larger, Stratton St. Mary, is to the south, and the other, Stratton St. Michael, is to the north. It had a population of 4,424 in the ...

Railway station

Swainsthorpe railway station on the Great Eastern Railway, which was the first station south of the

terminus at Norwich Victoria railway station, was closed in 1952.

Level crossing incidents

At 13.05 on Sunday 13 November 2005, the 13.00 One Railways service from

to Diss collided with a car, which according to witnesses, had positioned itself in the trains path. The driver was killed and the car burst into flames on impact. Nobody on board the train was killed. The level crossing was found to be in full working order. At 6:22am on Thursday 1 March 2007, a One Railways service travelling from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, collided with a

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

Astra on the crossing. One person in the car, believed to be the driver, died. The train, however, remained upright, did not

derail A derail or derailer is a device used to prevent fouling (blocking or compromising) of a rail track (or collision with anything present on the track, such as a person, or a train) by unauthorized movements of trains or unattended rolling stock. ...

and there were no injuries on board. On 26 September 2013 a car hit the barrier at the level crossing, an incident which was witnessed by the driver of the

Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the J ...

train. Nobody was injured.

Gallery

Image:Swainsthorpe-g3.jpg, Swainsthorpe St Peter Image:Swainsthorpe(KatyAppleton)Jan2006.jpg, Village green, Church and sign

References

http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Norfolk/Swainsthorpe

External links

St Peter's on the European Round Tower Churches website
Villages in Norfolk South Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk {{Norfolk-geo-stub