Swainby is a village in the county of

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. It is situated on the A172 road, north-east from

Northallerton Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Wiske in the Vale of Mowbray and had a population of 16,832 in 2011. Northallerton is an administrative centre for York and North Yorkshire ...

and south-east from the small market town of

Stokesley Stokesley is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It lies within the Historic counties of England, historic county boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire, on the River Leven, North Yorkshire, River Leven. An Wards and ...

Geography

Swainby is located at the north-western corner of the

North York Moors The North York Moors is an upland area in north-eastern Yorkshire, England. It contains one of the largest expanses of Calluna, heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a national parks of England and Wales, National P ...

National Park. The characteristics of the village and the surrounding area consist of traditional Yorkshire

dry stone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

s, hills, sheep, heather and moorland. The name of the village derives from

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

, ''Sveins'' and ''by'' which means the village next to the swans or the land of Svein's people. The village is close to the ruins of Whorlton Castle; Swainby appears to have been built after its abandonment, possibly due to the Black Death (or some other disease) leaving the inhabitants of the castle low in number in 1428. Holy Cross Church (Church of England) was designed by T. H. Wyatt; he was commissioned to do it by the

Marquess of Ailesbury Marquess of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury), in the Buckinghamshire, County of Buckingham, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 17 July 1821 for Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, Charles Brudene ...

. It is in the Early English style and constructed of locally quarried stone. The

grade II listed 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, H ...

church was consecrated on 4 October 1877. In the 19th century the housing of miners who worked the nearby hills for

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be c ...

and jet led to an expansion of the village. Scugdale Beck, a tributary of the River Leven, cuts northwards through the village with two roads either side of the water and houses built on both sides. Swainby contains two

public houses A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, "The Blacksmiths Arms" and "The Black Horse", and a

caravan park Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel * Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop * Caravan (tra ...

with farm house.

Governance

Swainby is in Whorlton civil parish, the village is presently larger than the parish's namesake therefore the

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

is under Swainby's name. The ward's population was 1,820 at the 2011 census. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of Hambleton, it is now administered by the unitary

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

Transport

Swainby was the site where an old drover's road entered the

. The road continued south to

Sutton Bank Sutton Bank is a hill in the former Hambleton District of the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire in England. It is a high point on the Hambleton Hills with extensive views over the Vale of York and the Vale of Mowbray. The A1 ...

where it fed into the prehistoric road that is now the A170. Cattle from

Ryedale Ryedale was a non-metropolitan district in North Yorkshire, England. It was in the Vale of Pickering, a low-lying flat area of land drained by the River Derwent, Yorkshire, River Derwent. The Vale's landscape is rural with scattered villages ...

were brought up to Swainby to be sold in the village. The village is just south of the A172 road which connects the

A19 road The A19 is a major road in England running approximately parallel to and east of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. Although the two roads meet at the northern end of the A19, the two roads originally met at the southern end of the A19 in ...

with Middlesbrough bypassing

. The village lies on the Northallerton to Stokesley bus route. A railway ran through the village between 1857 and 1899. It connected with railway station on the Picton–Battersby line but it was not open to passenger traffic, being used to move ironstone from Whorlton to the smelters on

Teesside Teesside () is an urban area around the River Tees in North East England. Straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, it spans the boroughs of Borough of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, Stockton ...

only.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in North Yorkshire

Geography

Governance

Transport

See also

References

External links