Swarkestone Bridge Chapel

We are always on the lookout for snippets about the history of Swarkestone and this cropped up recently from The Local History Bulletin of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society for Spring 1994. Who knew that there was once a bridge chapel and inn at Swarkestone and where were they? The extract below sheds some light. 

An article in the Derbyshire Archaeological Society's Journal for 1909 includes an illustration of the Trent flowing under the arches of Swarkestone Bridge with a house under trees standing by the side of the causeway to the south of the river. The author notes that this shows the Chapel House and Elms in 1857 and later in the article he quotes J.J. Briggs: "some part of this house formed, in ancient times, a chapel in which was a priest to sing masses lor the souls of those who passed over the bridge". Recent research suggests that the building shown was originally an inn, at least from before 1640 up to 1751, and by the mid nineteenth century had been divided into two dwellings, referred to in the censuses as "cottages near the Trent", "at the extreme Bridge End".

There is documentary evidence of a bridge chapel at Swarkestone. It was probably built about the middle of the thirteenth century for in 1249 ten logs were sent from the royal wood at Melbourne for the construction of the chapel on Swarkestone Bridge. It was served by priests from Repton Priory.

An Inquisition taken at Newark on 25th October, 1503 (19 Henry VII) and translated by the Rev. Dr. Cox in his Churches of Derbyshire (III.471) states: "A parcel of meadow land lying between the Bridge of Swarkestone and Ingleby had been given in early days to the Priory of Repton, on the tenure of supplying a priest to sing mass in the chapel on Swarkestone Bridge, but that there was then no such priest nor had one been appointed for the space of twenty years". The meadow land, shown then as worth six marks a year, must have in some way or other become merged in other property, probably being sold soon after the Dissolution of Repton Priory in 1538.

The neglect noted in the 1503 Inquisition continued for the next fifty years, for in 1552 the Churchwardens of Stanton reported'. "We have a chapell edified and buylded upon Trent in ye mydst of the grete streme anexed to Swerston bregge the which had certayne stuff belonging to it, ij desks to knele in, a tabell of wode and certayne barres of iron and glasse in the wyndoes, whiche Mr. Edward Beamont of Arleston hath taken away to his owne use, and we saye that if the Chapell dekeye, the brydge will not stande". Its contents show that this chapel at Swarkestone was quite small and the words " buylded upon Trent in ye mydst of the grete streme" imply a bridge chapel like the one still standing on the bridge over the river at Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. Reference to an estate map of Stanton-by-Bridge dated 1608 confirms this, as it shows a small building in the middle of an eight arched bridge over the river. Presumably the chapel continued to deteriorate and eventually disappeared

The article goes on to talk about an inn or house being positioned on the south bank of the river through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and being occupied up until the 1881 census. In the 1600’s and 1700’s the Shepperd family ran an inn which had beds for up to seventeen people. They paid rent to the Harpur estate for the inn and meadows and granted permission for barges and boats to navigate through Swarkestone Bridge. It seems to have passed to the Simms family in about 1738, who were there until around 1780. After that it was divided into two dwellings, accommodating large families until at least 1881, but nothing was recorded in the 1891 census.

There is very little there now to see, but if you look on the south bank left of the bridge and opposite the turn for Ingleby, there is an area of scrub and brambles which might just be covering any remaining ruins of whatever buildings were once standing. Has anyone ever excavated to find out? We’d love to know!