Swainsthorpe is a village in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, England. It lies on the

A140 road 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 ...

, approximately 5 miles south of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

, 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 church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berks ...

es 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 Tasb ...

, 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 ...

. 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 in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, 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 Bus East of England is a bus operator that provides services in Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern England; it is a subsidiary of FirstGroup. It has five depots in operating areas spread out across East Anglia: Norwich, Ipswich, Great Yarmou ...

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 The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

, 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 collided with a car, which according to witnesses had positioned itself in the train's path. The car 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 06:22 on Thursday 1 March 2007, a One Railways service travelling from to Norwich collided with a

Vauxhall Astra The Vauxhall Astra is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) that has been sold by Vauxhall Motors, Vauxhall since 1980. Over its eight generations, it has been made at several GM/Opel/Stellantis plants around Europe - however most versio ...

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 Transport UK East Anglia Limited) is a British train operating company owned as a joint venture by Transport UK Group and Mitsui & Co. It operates the East Anglia franchise, providing the commuter and inter-city se ...

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
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk South Norfolk Civil parishes in Norfolk