Swann History - Places of interest in March, England:-
(Also see the March Photographs Page)

Updated 2001/10/21 at 19:04:12 (Eastern Australian time).

1. MARCH. (North of Cambridge)
A note on the names of roads in March:- Roads have a habit of changing their name as you travel along them making it difficult to give directions. (Click here for map) For the sake of this description I will assume your approach to March is by car from the south along the A141. (All directions are given on the assumption you are travelling from south to north.) As you travel north along the A141 you will find it bypasses March and you need to get off it by turning right onto the B1101. At this Point you will see the spire of St. Wendreda's church straight ahead of you. Stop when you see pub ahead on the left. (There is a parking area for a school on your right.) Click here for aerial photo

The pub is was called the "Seven Stars" up until 1997 (it is now called "The Stars"). Inside there are old photographs showing the pub and the house next door. One of these is a family photograph supplied by myself to the March Museum in 1978. The pub was extensively renovated in 1996/7.

As child and young man Sidney Swann (Click here) lived next door (facing the main road - "The Avenue"). Alas the house was replaced in 1988. Sidney's father Robert, and his father (also Robert) ran a building and undertakers business at the back of the house which was locally known as "Swann's Yard". You may see that the replacement houses have been given the name "Swan" (sic).

Directly across The Avenue is a house that was also owned by the Swann family. Jack Swann was living there in 1978. Robert Swann paid the rates on several properties in March. (Rates books, March Museum.)

Turn left into Church street and walk to the front of the church. If it is closed, the key is at the Stars hotel (in 1997 it was kept at the shop in Church St.). On the way to the church you will pass buildings once owned by Robert Swann, I am not sure which ones, but I think the shop was one of them.

Inside St Wendreda's the angel hammer beam roof is unique in England. Swanns have been baptised, married and buried from this church for many centuries. You can just see up into part of the bell tower from the floor of the church and you should be able to make out references to "Swann" or "Swan" - one of these was also the landlord at the pub at one time. Walter Swann Jr. (the son of Sidney's brother, Walter) gave generously for the upkeep of the church roof both during his lifetime and in his Will.

If you go back to the church yard entrance gate (facing back towards the pub) you will find the a burial ground across the road. In the fence surrounding the cemetery you will see a house. If you walk past this building towards "The Stars", then enter the cemetery and turn right after entering, you will see a pink granite headstone in the shape of a spire. (In September 2001 the bushes along the fence line had been severely cut back so that the "Swann" grave was clearly visible from the road.) This is the grave of Sidney's father (Robert), his mother (Mary), his sister (Ada) and brother-in-law (Vernon). You will also see a suggestion that Sidney's elder brother, Robert is also buried here. But, as far as I can work out, the inscription is wrong because according to the Australian Army, Robert died in Cairns Qld. Australia on the 23rd November 1941 (not 1921 as shown on the headstone). Robert had enlisted in the Australian Army in Sydney on the 31st August 1914 and served in the Middle East and France.

Beside the Granite headstone is a grave with names close to the ground (they may be hidden by grass) of Sidney's unmarried sister (Fanny) and his brother, (Walter) and sister-in-law (Almina). Walter and Almina had a son, Walter (who became a wealthy industrialist in Sheffield when he founded the Swann/Morton surgical instrument factory). Walter was cremated in 1980 in Sheffield. Fanny ran a hat shop and owned a house (No 8) on The Causeway (or The Avenue - the name changes part way along) between the Stars and the town centre. (Although I photographed the house in 1982. in 2001, I could not find it.) Walter Jr. lived with Fanny when he was young. Fanny later lived in 129 Creek Road and this house was still standing in Sept 2001. When Fanny died she split all her money between the family. In 1940 my farther used his share as the deposit on a small farm at Toongabbie, NSW Australia (he there lived until he died in 1998).

I can't remember exactly where Sidney's grandfather (Robert Swann) and grandmother (Jane Behagg) are buried, but I am fairly sure it is on the southern side of, or just behind the building in the cemetery fence. It is a conventional style headstone with a cross on the top.

There are other Swanns here in St Wendreda's burial ground but probably not in a direct line to me. You may also see the name "Morton" and "Behagg" among the headstones - these are the family names of some of my ancestors.

Another name of interest is "Christmas", as Sidney had a friend who also migrated to Australia, and his (and his wife's) ashes are in niches beside the ashes of Sidney & Olive at Rookwood, Sydney (the inscription mentions March).

Return to the "Stars" by walking back along Church St. turn left into the Avenue and continue along it north towards the town centre.

On the way you may find Fanny's house on the right (No 8, The Causeway). Before reaching the bridge over the Nene River you will see (on the left) an old school has been turned into a local museum (opening hours elsewhere on this site).

After crossing the bridge and traveling the full length of Broad St. (it is actually broad), turn left into Dartford Road. After a short distance you will see (on the right) a cream brick building (with arched windows and rows of red bricks) on a corner. This was a school built by Sidney's father - Robert in 1873. It was still a school in 1978 but the council later closed it, used it as a library, then it was converted into offices about 1996.

Note the commemorative stones facing the street. The one with Robert's name on it was in the original wall which was about ten feet further back. I think the wall was demolished and moved forward to its present position by builder John Ward in 1894 (see the second stone). Robert did a lot of building but I don't know where the buildings are. In 1978 I found a grain store (since demolished) designed and built by Robert for his father-in-law (Morton), on the corner of Station Road and St. John's Road. I was told many years ago that Robert Jnr built No 129 Creek Rd (the house of my great grandmother and great aunt Fanny) but this can not be true as the house was built in 1910 (eleven year after Robert died).

2. CHRISTCHURCH (E of March)

Mary Elizabeth Morton was born in the village (really just a collection of buildings) of Chistchurch, about five miles east of March in a straight line. The road from March is a zig zag affair leaving March along St. Peter's Road (the B1099) off High Street (or The Avenue, or The Causeway). This soon becomes Upwell Road and you pass a cemetery on your right. After some twists and turns, turn left onto the B1098 at a 'T' intersection. Travel for 1.5 miles, then turn right onto the B1100. Christchurch along this road on your left. (Click here for aerial photo)

I am sure there is a lot more to learn about Swann ancestry in March and the surrounding area.

Other places worth a visit in the area are Ely Cathedral (where Sidney is reputed to have sung in the choir) and Oliver Cromwell's house nearby, and Peterborourgh Cathedral which was the setting for the TV adaptation of the Barchester Chronicles.

 Kevin Swann