History of Swillington
Swillington Saints FC operates through its club committee which is bound together by our Club Constitution and DNA.
Our Committee is a team of volunteers that meets once a month. During our meetings, a member of the Committee takes notes of the key points being discussed to form the 'meeting minutes'. If you have something you wish to be raised at the meeting, please contact the Chairman whose contact details can be found below.
History of our Village
Coal Mining Past
Swillington was once a coal mining village, though the pits were worked out and closed, some years before the industry itself was all but destroyed. Where Primrose Hill Pit once stood is now a housing estate with street names taken from the colliery's name, Primrose Hill Drive, Primrose Hill Green and many others.
Primrose Hill Colliery in Swillington opened in 1893 and at its peak employed more than 1,000 people. It closed in 1970, after which many of its workers found jobs at other pits in the surrounding areas. There now stands a memorial in the village as seen in the first image. The second image shows a National Coal Board Industrial Steam Locomotive Class Hunslet at Primrose Hill Colliery, Swillington, Yorks in 1971.
Swillington is also located next to the former opencast coal mine at St Aidan's (as seen in images 3 and 4 below).
Education
The Old School House (first image below) in Swillington was built with funds given by Lord Lowther, who had many business interests in Swillington, and the surrounding area. Several of Swillington's streets are named after Lord Lowther, along with a very popular fishing lake in our neighbouring village of Allerton Bywater. Both Lord and Lady Lowther are buried in the graveyard of St Mary's Church.
These days, the Old School House is feeling the weight of its years - nevertheless, it's still used and loved by many local groups, providing a home, at one time or another, for community groups such as the local Scouts and Brownies, mums and toddler group and has recently provided a home for the local youth club.
The Old School House was unable to meet the educational needs of Swillington's children many years ago; a bright new school was built to give the children of Swillington the best start in life. However, the years pass and each leaves its mark, and, in its turn, this school building became age weary. Again, a new school for the children of the digital age was envisaged and planned, a change of government with a very different agenda, briefly threatened the project, but finally the new school build got the green light. You can see the new schools currently being built in the second image below.
Now, at last, the building is complete and it certainly looks fantastic from the outside as you can see in the third and fourth images below.
Swillington House
The “fine old mansion, surrounded by delightful scenery” at Swillington was made available by the owner, Sir Charles Bingham Lowther, a descendant of Sir William Lowther from Westmoreland, who had bought the estate in 1655 looking to exploit the coal reserves under the land.
A house built on the site in 1690 was remodelled in 1738 by the architect Henry Flitcroft. Sixty five years later, reputedly using a million bricks, it was rebuilt in 1803-04 with a large stable block and a walled garden.
Swillington Hall, or Swillington House as it was better known, was one of over 50 convalescent homes or “auxilliary hospitals” for wounded soldiers in the West Riding during the First World War. Others nearby included Lotherton Hall, Temple Newsam and Harewood House.
Ater WW1, There’s no evidence that Sir Charles returned to live at Swillington House. In September 1919 he auctioned off the contents including antique furniture by Thomas Chippendale and a library of 3,500 books which had been stored in the upper rooms.
The house and estate of over 2,000 acres was then sold to the local colliery company T. & R. W. Bower, which became part of the Darlington based firm of Pease and Partners.
In the early 1920s, they turned the house into three and two room flats for their workers which were let at rents cheaper than newly built council houses.
The Leeds Mercury reported in August 1925 that there were 130 men, women and children living there. It was “an atmosphere of toil, of poverty, and decay in place of leisured ease and the quiet dignity of wealth and social standing,” said the paper. The windows were cracked and walls were spattered with grease and dirt. The stables, which had housed 32 horses, were empty and the greenhouses were falling to pieces.
After living in Northamptonshire for a number years, where he became High Sheriff in 1926, Sir Charles and his family moved to Erbistock Hall in Denbighshire.
After suffering for many years from mining subsidence, Swillington House was demolished by the National Coal Board in 1952.
All that remains is the stable block which was bought and renovated in the early 1960s by former miner Jim Bullock who had been born at Bowers Row on the Lowther estate and rose to be president of the colliery managers’ union.
You can read more about Swillington House being used as a hospital here.
St Mary's Church
The Church of St Mary Swillington, built late 14C or early 15C, is Grade ll listed. The most striking external feature is the contrast between the dark tower and the creamy yellow of the rest of the church. The tower was rebuilt in 1883/84 with ashlar stone quarried in Harehills, a suburb of Leeds.
The Venerable Thomas Dealtry M.A, formerly Archdeacon of Madras and Rector of the Parish 1872-1878, is credited with the introduction of the custom of throwing confetti over the bride and groom at a wedding; apparently the practice originates in the Hindu custom where the bridegroom throws 3 handfuls of rice over his bride & she does the same to him, as a symbol of fertility. The custom, with the rice being substituted by confetti was introduced in Swillington by Dealtry.
