Swingfield comes from the Old English ‘swin’ meaning a ‘swine, pig’, with ‘feld’
as ‘open country, unencumbered ground’; therefore, ‘open land where pigs are kept’.
Swingfield church is a Grade: I listed building, dedicated to Saint Peter. It originates
from the 11th century, although rebuilt in the 13th century, with the erection of
the tower 200 years later. There is a record of three bells in 1552, although, 1796
saw the sale of two trebles. In 1799 Edward Hasted wrote in his topographical survey
that the Swingfield church ‘consists of one isle and one chancel, having a square
tower, with a beacon turret at the west end, in which is one bell’. The Victorians
restored the church in 1870. In 2000, it passed into the care of the Churches Conservation
Trust.
