Swinford is a

nucleated village A nucleated village, or clustered settlement, is one of the main types of settlement pattern. It is one of the terms used by geographers and landscape historians to classify settlements. It is most accurate with regard to planned settlements: its ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, close to the border with Northamptonshire. The population was 24,779 at the 2021 census. It is the administrative headquarters of the Harborough dis ...

district of the English county of

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 586. It used to be on the former A427, which led under the M1, to

Catthorpe Catthorpe is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. It is located beside the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon and close to the A5 road (Great Britain) ...

. The parish church is All Saints, a 12th-century

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

rebuilding of an earlier

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church with a 14th-century square

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

and a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

.A History of All Saints Church, Swinford
(link on web page opens this document)British Listed Buildings
/ref> The local pub is ''The Chequers'' on the High Street, formerly known as ''Chequer Inn''. Chequers Swinford

Its Anglo-Saxon name was "Suin Heaford" meaning "the head of the Suin" referring to a tributary of the River Avon. A

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

was constructed north of the village at Swinford Corner and commenced operation in Autumn 2012. It consists of 11 turbines, each of 2 MW capacity and is operated by

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational electrical power industry, power company owned by the List of government enterprises of Sweden, Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germa ...

.www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk
21 June 2012 "Turbine blades start to arrive at wind farm site"
Swinford wind farm project

References

External links

Swinford Parish Council
*
Leicestershire villages
Swinford Villages in Leicestershire Civil parishes in Harborough District {{Leicestershire-geo-stub

See also

References

External links