A Brief History of Swanland

Ecclesiastically Swanland came under the jurisdiction of North Ferriby. This is hardly surprising as Ferriby had a Priory and was not only responsible for the religious needs our village, it also was charged with St. Mary's, Lowgate, Hull. Until very recent times Swanland never had an Anglican Church. We did however have a chapel at ease to the Ferriby Priory. It is quite likely that, as there was no church as such, here was a place ripe to be a centre for the nonconformist element. Swanland's earliest dissenters' chapel was the predecessor of the present one. It was capable of holding five hundred people and drew its congregation from many miles around. In 1715 Joshua Hardcastle had 450 hearers, 20 of these were well enough off to be voters of the county according to Rev. G. Patton.

In spite of its neighbours dominance it was still a village or township in its own right. It had a Manor which collected tithes from the local people. It was a large manor running from Riplingham in the north right down to the Humber river in the south; from Westella in the east to Melton in the west.

The village has all the attributes of a Medieval village. The road at the eastern end is sunken, due to the lack of road metaling, in other words the earth just wore away leaving the properties on each side elevated. Another typical feature of medieval villages is that they had a main street and parallel back roads on each side, with the properties in between the main street and the back roads. The northern back road has completely disappeared and the southern one changed its course slightly at the time of the enclosure act. The number of houses seems to have stayed quite stable, certainly in the 16th., 17th and 18th centuries the number was around thirty five.

It always intrigued me the way that the road from Ferriby split into two. It recently dawned on me why this is so. The farm for the priory was at Swanland in the north field. To get to this the monks would have taken the right hand fork. The most direct route to the chapel at ease or Chantry was down the left hand fork.

Until the enclosure took place the strip fields of the manorial system ran north to south mostly on the south side of the village. These fields with their dividing balks extended in long strips all the way down to the Humber bank. Many of the fields to the north of Swanland were already enclosed, it is possible that this could be explained by the fact that the Priory were occupying this land. The farm house that stood in the village centre was called Priory farm. This was a nice old building, it is a shame that conservation came too late to save it.  It had several bands of decorative brickwork along the front, it also had its own decorative pavement between it and the road. This was made from thin brick on edge in a herring bone design. I think this will still exist under the present tar macadam. The house was two-storey with a central door with a window on each side.

Swanland's southern back road took on a new importance when it became the turnpike from the Hull direction running west. It came along Tranby lane and turned to Ferriby down Kemp road, when it carried on to Welton and Elloughton. When I was a boy there was a metal mile post on a short wooden post that read HULL 7 MILES. This was in front of the house now known as 'Fir Croft'.  The earliest road to pass through the parish was a Roman one. I have not been able to trace it in the village but aerial photographs show it leaving the fields at the side of the Melton quarry and heading in an easterly direction. My estimation where it would cross Dale Road is approximately where Northfield exits. It could well run down part of Northfield. If it were absolutely straight as Roman roads are supposed to be, it would make for Wawne Ferry.  In medieval times the need for roads of good quality in rural areas was rare. Most of them were little better than tracks. An example that still exists is Tom Pots road on the north side of Melton Bottoms half way between Dale Road and Mill Road. This is very overgrown but gives one an idea of the road to Waudby from Swanland. In the early 1950s I drove our van down this road, never again the ruts were so deep we almost got stuck on several occasions, it was much quicker to go round. The south end of the road was lost with the enclosures, as were several others.

This is an image of the Dower House, the two single storey houses were called Ganton Cottages and the next double fronted house is the home of the Gray family. The building ajoining the Dower house is said to have been the brew house, it was eventually turned into a cottage. When I was a boy Mr.Bradley a fish merchant lived in the Dower house and Len Laws had the cottage.  Non of these houses are standing today. The roadman with his barrow is Mr. Crawford. This picture to some extent shows the sunken road. Dower Rise now leaves Main Street at this point.