Swanbourne’s links to the American Civil War Researched by Clive Rodgers Advice to Swanbourne residents, 1864:- “America is not at the present time a desirable place to emigrate to….” Article from ‘The Bucks Herald’ Newspaper Dated 26th March 1864 SWANBOURNE LECTURE ON AMERICA – On Tuesday evening, the Hon. W. Broderick endeavoured to instruct and amuse the […]

The burning of Swanbourne by Royalist Forces, 1643  Summarised by Clive Rodgers     Following a long period when the Stuart kings wanted to ride roughshod over the will of Parliament, the final straw and direct cause of the Civil War was the Ship Money  Tax. In 1635 King Charles ordered that everyone in the country should pay Ship Money. […]

 The Swanbourne name – analysis of the evidence By Clive Rodgers The origins of the Swanbourne name have never been entirely clear.  The second half of the name ‘bourne’ is the most obvious, however, being a version of ‘burn’ which means a stream.  Elderly villagers still describe the village as ‘Swanburn‘ phonetically, and in the […]

The claiming of Western Australia for Britain. By Clive Rodgers The first European to explore the river was  Dutchman, Willem de Vlamingh, in 1697, referring to it as New Holland. It was Vlamingh who named it  ‘Swan River’ after its black swans. To European eyes black was an  unusual colour for swans and worthy of […]

The transfer of power View of events as summarised by Clive Rodgers Swene  of Essex is believed to have been the uncle of King Harold and  presumably  the brother of Godwin,  Earl of  Kent.   The same two names Swein and Godwin are present in Anglo-Saxon Swanbourne. Earl Harold (The King) had held a number of important […]

The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 and Captain Fremantle. By Clive Rodgers During the engagement at Trafalgar (just outside the Mediterranean, off the Atlantic coast of Spain), on 21 October 1805, the Royal Navy had one of its greatest victories for over 200 years, but lost Admiral Nelson in the process. Captain Thomas Fremantle was assigned the massive 98-gun HMS Neptune […]

World War Records By Linda Rodgers   For a full transcription of War Memorial and military related Church and Census Records in PDF, CLICK BELOW:-   War Memorial summary of information   In 1940, Squadron Leader Anthony Bartley was an fighter pilot ace in World War 2.  He had grown up and lived in Swanbourne with his […]