Swanwick () is a village in
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...
, England, also a parish within the
Amber Valley
Amber Valley is a local government district and borough in the east of Derbyshire, England, taking its name from the River Amber. It covers a semi-rural zone with four main towns whose economy was based on coal mining and remains to some ext ...
district, with a population of 5,316 at the 2001 census, falling to 5,084 at the 2011 Census. It has a number of shops, pubs and other businesses, a Church of St Andrews, as well as
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...
and
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christianity, Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe ...
churches. In the northern part of the parish an industrial estate on the former Swanwick Colliery site incorporates the Thornton's Confectionery factory along with other businesses. There is also a Christian conference centre, the largest in the UK. Now largely urbanised, the parish still has some remaining agricultural land to the north and west.
History
The name Swanwick is derived from the Old English "Swana" meaning herdsmen, and "wic" meaning a group of buildings.
[Johnson, Reginald, 1968, p156. 'A History of Alfreton'.] The settlement is thought to have begun in the vicinity of the farm above The Hayes (meaning "enclosure"), on which a number of ancient footpath routes converge. It is first mentioned in 1304 in Sir Thomas Chaworth's grants to Beauchief Abbey. Sir Thomas was the Lord of the Manor of Alfreton, which encompassed Swanwick. The area was exploited for coal from early times, first with small pits in the locality known as The Delves (meaning 'diggings') and later with a major colliery in the north of the parish, which closed in the 1960s.
Several families figure highly in Swanwick's long history. The Turners, beginning with George Turner in 1620, owned the local mineral rights and became coal magnates, until the death of Charles Turner in 1736. John Turner built Swanwick Hall around 1690. Elizabeth Turner had a school built in 1740 to provide education for 20 children from poor families. The school house is now a private residence. The other most significant family was the Woods, who occupied the original Swanwick Hall ('The Old Hall') in what is known as Wood's Yard. It was a substantial yeoman's residence of 1678, as evidenced by a