Historical

The Historic Swettenham Arms, previously a 16th Century Nunnery.

Standing opposite the Swettenham Arms is the 700 years old St Peters Church. At one time an underground tunnel linked the Church to the Nunnery which later became The Swettenham Arms.

Early Settlement

Swettenham lies 5 miles northwest of Congleton in the County of Cheshire, on the north bank of the River Dane, a broad, swift and shallow river whose whole course is only 20 miles. It rises in Macclesfield Forest, close to Three Shires Mere enters Cheshire 2 miles from Congleton and meanders westward by Radnor to Hermitage and Cranage and thence to Northwich where it joins the Weaver. Its course is exceedingly winding near Swettenham and the size and shape of the sandy beaches on is, banks vary from season to season, as quantities of soil are swept from one side to the other, thus altering the boundaries of the meadows to a considerable extent.

Like so much of the rest of Cheshire, the land here has been used for centuries for the pasturing of cattle, the fertile well-watered valley providing good conditions for this type of agriculture, and after countless generations of farming the village maintains a wholly agricultural character to this day.
We can only presume that the rich meadowland, sheltered by the hills to the east and protected by the well-wooded sides of the valley, attracted our remote ancestors to settle here - no concrete evidence of life in those ancient times remains. We know that in prehistoric ages a great part of the County of Cheshire was covered with heavy woodland and the region formed a link between other centres of poulation rather than being a centre in itself. The Celtic settlements of the Pennines lay to the east and those of the Welsh highlands to the west.

After the establishment of Deva (Chester) the City on the Dee by the Romans the strategic and cultural importance of the area increased rapidly. A system of road communication was developed, an important section of which, Watling Street, crossed Cheshire.

Following the withdrawal of the Romans in A.D. 380 the county was invaded from all sides - by the Picts from the North, the Scots from Ireland, the Welsh Celts from the West and the Saxons, jute, and Angles from the South. From tiles, and other conflicts England slowly emerged into four g reat Kingdoms, of which Cheshire (with Staffordshire and part of Lancashire) was in the Kingdom of Mercia.
About the beginning of the ninth century Mercia fell under the domination of Egbert King of Wessex. Nearly a hundred years later the Danes were established in Chester, whereupon King Alfred's troops built defensive forts and castle, against them on the Mersey. The Danes did not rest long before venturing into England agasin and Cheshire was once more the scene of conflict, this time between Canute's force, and those of Edmund Aetheling.

It is from this period that we find the earliest evidence of a Settlement, later to be known as Swettenham although only two supposedly Saxon remains have been brought to light one an old cross found near the site of the ancient Manor House (Swettenham Hall) and the other the small font.

Swettenham Manor House.

At the time of the Norman conquest the neighbouring township (now part of the Parish), Kermincham, or Cerdingham, is referred to in the Doomsday survey:

Hugo tenet dc comite i bereuruicham Cerdingham Godric tenuit IN dimidia hid, geldans T err a est i carucae Wasta fuit e[ est. Valuit V. solidos.

Hugh holds of the earl I berewick Cerdingham (Kermincham) Godric held (it). There is half a hide that pays geld. There. is land (enough) for 2 ploughs. It was and is waste. It was worth 5s. (N.B. A berewick was a rnanor within a manor.)

Somerford adjacent to Swettenham and later the seat of one branch of the Swettenham family is also mentioned:

In Mildestic Hundret.
Hugo tenet de comite Sumreford. Godric tenuit ut Ilber home. Ibi dimidia hid, geldans. Terra est i carucae. Wasta but et est adhuc.

In Mildestvic (Northwich) Hundred.
Hugh holds of the earl Somreford (Somerford Radnor) Godric held (it) as a free man. There is half a hide that pays geld. There is land (enough) for 1 plough. It was waste and still is.

In the survey this and the next three entries, all belonging to the fief of Hugh Fitz-Norman, were omitted from their proper place and inserted awkwardly, being set further into the inner margin.

Hugh Fitz-Norman heads the pedigree of the barons of Mold or Montalt, by Earl Richard's charter to St. Warburgh's, and the four manors assigned to him at the Conquest were: Bosley, Marton, Kennincham and Somerford, each entry in Domes Jay beginning:

'Hugo, tenet . . .' Before the Conquest all these manors belonged to a single owner Gothic, a free man.

In 1297 William, son of Henry de Somerford, granted to William, son of William de Swettenham in free marriage with Hawise, daughter of liandle dc Hulme, and their heirs, all his land in Somerford except that land which his mother Gondava held in dower. As the free holders of these kinds owed allegiance to the Governor of the Northwich Hundred, they met to touch his spear with theirs as a mark of loyalty and obedience In feudal times the lord of the manor was restricted in the amount of land belonging to his estate which he could keep entirely for himself and he was obliged to lease not less than half of it to tenants whom he could not dispossess or evict except under certain conditions-that the lease on the tenant's death descended to his son and his son's on payment of the usual heriot (fine paid to the lord on the death of a land holder), Alt hough the yeoman had to perform many menial services for his holding, he was on an entirely different footing to the serf, and was sometimes even wealthier than his lord. Each holding, instead of being one compact piece, was comprised of numbers of little strips of land scattered over the manor indiscriminately. They varied in size from a quarter of an acre upwards, and were known variously as selions, butts, Kind, and yards.Estates were further split up by grants to the lord's younger brothers through failure of male issue or which from various causes passed into other families. For convert ..... .. change of parcels of land became necessary, as one find, on reading the Swettenham Chartulary Deeds Money values in these early times appear trivial to us today. For example in 1302, William de Somerford a man of considerable possessions, wishing to vest all he had on his daughter and her husband (William Swettenham) arranged that he and his wife should live with their son-in-law but anticipating any disagreement he stipulated in any such an event that though parting with his property absolutely, he and his wife were to receive a bushel of corn and 3d. weekly for their sustenance as long as they lived.

Taken from 'A Village History Of Swettenham' 1952.

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