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Swinbrook is a delightful village, with its houses spread along the roadside for
over a mile beside the little Wenrisc stream, that joins the river Windrush
here. As you approach from the Burford road there is a lovely view of the stream
tumbling into the river and the pond, scene of a wartime landmine crater, where
there are swans, geese, ducks and moorhens enjoying life in and around the
meadows. The cricket field with its beautiful trees is situated here, where all
through the summer on Sundays and some Saturdays the local teams enjoy their
games.
The bridge crosses two rivers, the Windrush on its way down to join the Thames
at Newbridge and the mill stream which rejoins it in a few yards. The old mill
has not been used for many decades for milling, but the house has a lovely
garden, especially in springtime, with thousands of daffodils, which visitors to
the Swan Inn next door fully appreciate.
The name Swinbrook conjures up a time some hundreds of years ago, when the swine
from Wychwood Forest came down to the brook for their water. Many small woods
and copses still grow to the north of the village, from Beech Grove in the
north-west to Stockley Wood in the north-east, with Furzy Lees, Widely,
Hensgrove and Fosgrove somewhere in between.
St Marys church contains some very interesting figures, 16th and 17th century
effigies of members of the Fettiplace family who lived at Swinbrook in a large
house to the west of the church. There is now no trace of the house, which was
destroyed almost 200 years ago, but the fishponds and formal terraces lie on
either side of the footpath to Widford. The Redesdale family lived at Swinbrook
House to the north of the village. Besides Lord and Lady Redesdale, two of their
daughters are buried here, Nancy Mitford the authoress and her sister Unity. For
many years they owned the estate, which included most of Asthall, Swinbrook and
Widford, and all the houses and gateways were painted Redesdale Blue. There are
very few houses with blue paint today, if any.
To the east of the Hall the little Swin Lane goes up Lime Kiln Hill towards
Asthall Leigh, Fordwells and Leafield. On the left upstream, the Old School
House is a reminder of the days when the school flourished here. As the numbers
of children dropped after the Second World War and the evacuees returned home,
the school was closed.
Passing the school house you come to the splash where the stream crosses the
road. On the side there is a small bridge for walkers or cyclists. Now the
houses are spread thinly, three on the right, where a raised path shows where
the stream used to come down the road. It now crosses and recrosses under two
little humps. The Old Forge stands on the corner of Blacksmiths Lane. It
ceased to be a forge some 50 years ago.
The houses and large gardens through the narrow valley continue to be quite a
distance apart until you get to the building which was a Primitive Methodist
chapel. Here several homes are set into the steep hillside.
Almost at the end of Swinbrook a turning goes off right, up the New Road through
the woods to Fordwells, but bearing left towards Shipton under Wychwood you will
pass the Hit or Miss, formerly a public house used by foresters, farm hands
and poachers. Among them were the Dunsden brothers, whose bodies were hanged on
the gibbet tree on Capps Lodge Plain. They had been found guilty of various
crimes at Gloucester Assizes and their bodies brought back to the scene of their
crimes.
The lane to the left leads on to Paynes Farm and four cottages and then becomes
a farm track up on to the downs, but on the corner is a very attractive pond
which attracts lots of visitors to see the ducks, geese and other water fowl
that live there. The bank below the farmhouse is full of bulbs in spring and
trees and shrubs lean over the water.
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