Listed Buildings in Swinton

 

Hawthorne Farmhouse

Since living in South Yorkshire, except for arranging an exhibition of my Glowing Edges Designs artwork at Swinton Lock and teaching English to a group of teenaged Spanish students from Vigo at Swinton Academy, I had only passed through Swinton on the A6022 road.

 

Swinton war memorial

Looking on the British Listed Buildings website, however, I noted that several buildings did not yet have a photograph and, after visiting St. Margaret’s church, I set off to explore this small town – immediately coming across the war memorial on Church Street.

 

The 1855 Ordnance Survey map of Swinton

This simple Portland stone cross is not listed and, stopping only to take a few record photos, I continued to Fitzwilliam Street, where there is a cluster of Grade II Listed houses of varying sizes – starting at No. 15, a much altered mid to late C18 house that has been listed for its group value in what I assume to be the oldest part of Swinton.

 

No.15 Fitzwilliam Street

I didn’t look closely at the yellowish brown sandstone and carried on for a short distance, until I came to Hawthorne Farmhouse, which has a datestone of 1774 and its north elevation is partially rebuilt in red brick.

 

Hawthorne Farmhouse

 

Again, I didn’t stop to closely examine the sandstone closely but, from a distance, it looks quite similar to that seen in parts of the rebuilt remains of the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, with weathering exposing a greyish body of stone that weathers to various shades of orange/brown.

 

The north elevation of Swinton Hall

Further up Fitzwilliam Street, the early C19 Swinton Hall is built in similar sandstone but its most interesting features are the grouped chimney stacks on the east end, which has a rather incongruous loggia with Doric columns.

 

The east elevation with a loggia

At the entrance to the south elevation, the gate piers are built in large blocks of a soft orange/brown sandstone that has developed some differential weathering and scouring. It is quite different to the sandstone used for the house and a considerable proportion of the boundary wall here is built in similar stone.

 

A gate pier at Swinton Hall

On the opposite side of the road, is Swinton House, another early-mid C18 house, built in coursed sandstone and partly rendered. To the rear, there are substantial C19 additions, but I didn’t closely study the fabric of the building.

 

Swinton House

In places, the building has become run down and the most decorative feature, on the main east elevation, a doorway with a broken segmental pediment, is quite decayed with fractures caused by an embedded iron cramp that has rusted and expanded.

 

The broken segmental pediment on Swinton House

 

The sandstone used for the original house is greyish in colour and quite soft and also looks quite similar to much of the stone seen in the remains of the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene. In many places, it has become deeply scoured, which is probably the reason why so much of this part of the elevation has been rendered.

 

A detail of a rusting iron cramp

The C19 extensions, however, are built in a brown sandstone, which are more similar to the other buildings that I had just seen on Fitzwilliam Street. I didn’t look closely enough at any of the buildings to notice the abundant ironstone nodules, which are characteristic of the Mexborough Rock, but I suspect that the better stone is from the quarries at Mexborough and the poor quality stone is local Oaks Rock.

 

The west and south elevations of Swinton House