Collieries opened during the Industrial Revolution and Swinton became an important industrial area with coal providing the fuel for the cotton spinning and brickmaking industries. Bricks from Swinton were used for industrial projects including the Bridgewater Canal, which passes Swinton to the south. The adoption of the factory system facilitated a process of unplanned urbanisation in the area, and by the mid-19th century Swinton was an important mill town and coal mining district at a convergence of factories, brickworks and a newly constructed road and railway network.[4]
In 1817 some Swinton weavers joined in the Blanketeers' demonstration and marched to London to put their grievances to the Prince Regent. In 1842 some Swinton people took part in Chartist agitations and tried to destroy a local colliery.
Sunday schools and libraries were established in Swinton at quite an early period. Swinton Industrial School was visited by Charles Dickens. The school was created by the Manchester Poor Law Union. In contrast with other institutions for the poor around that time, which were places of final resort, the Swinton Industrial School was built in response to a more enlightened attitude. The Manchester Poor Law Union saw the value of a place where children could be cared for and educated.[8] The school opened in 1843 and survived until the 1920s. During demolition of the school buildings in the early 1930s, the foundations proved particularly difficult. Finally explosives were used, which resulted in a huge number of rats being disturbed. It was a number of weeks before council workers could remove the rats from the surrounding streets and houses. Huge nests of baby rats were carried out of the rafters of many buildings. The site was used for the present town hall.
The site of the former Swinton Industrial School on Chorley Road was purchased for £12,500 and the foundation stone of the new town hall laid on 16 October 1936. The main builders were J. Gerrard's and Son of Swinton. The town hall opened on 17 September 1938. Extensions were built when it became the administrative headquarters of the City of Salford in 1974
Swinton is served by two railway stations on the Manchester-Southport line.
Swinton railway station is near the town centre on Station Road (B5231), just over the boundary in Pendlebury. The other station is Moorside railway station near the top of Moorside Road, close to its junction with Chorley Road (A6). Until 1974 it was known as Moorside and Wardley railway station.
Several bus lines also run through Swinton, leading to Manchester city centre, Bolton and Trafford, among others.[17]
Sports
Test match between Great Britain and Australia at Station Road in November 1963
Swinton RLFC has an impressive record in rugby league considering the size of the town. The club's six Championship and three Challenge Cup wins is better than the record of their local rivals Salford RLFC. The club was based just over the local boundary in Pendlebury until 1992, when financial mismanagement necessitated a move from the Station Road ground to play at Gigg Lane in Bury. The financial failure of main creditor and de facto owner Hugh Eaves in 2002 put the future of the club in jeopardy and it spent a short time regrouping at Moor Lane in Kersal, as tenants of Salford City F.C. From 2003, the Lions played home games at Park Lane, Whitefield, home of Sedgley Park RUFC. In 2006, the club acquired land to build a 6,000 capacity stadium with training facilities and community use in Agecroft, Pendlebury. After ground-sharing with Leigh and Salford,[18] the club moved to Heywood Road, Sale, home of Sale Rugby Union F.C. for the 2016 season onwards.
Swinton based junior association football side Deans F.C. was the starting point in the career of Ryan Giggs, who grew up in neighbouring Pendlebury and went on to become a Manchester United player, and also of Dean Holden.
St Peter's School is split into two areas, Juniors and Infants. Like most primary schools in England, St. Peter's caters to children aged 3 to 11 (Years 1 to 6).[19] In January 2011 the school placed 12th in the list of most popular primary schools in the city of Salford, with there being 30 places available with 40 parents listing the school as the first choice for their children leaving a surplus of 10 children.[20] St Peter's is a feeder school for Moorside High School.[citation needed] At the time of the previous inspection children's skills on entry to the Nursery were below average but they have declined since then and are now well below average.
St. Peter's C. E. Primary School was not originally on the site that it now sits upon (the original 19th century school was where the Swinton Shopping Centre now stands). It was a much smaller school and therefore a much bigger building was needed. The current building started being constructed in 1905 and the work was finished in 1906. The school first opened its doors 1906 and has remained virtually unchanged ever since.
The school is subject to frequent outbreaks of vandalism and theft of outdoor and computer equipment. The school made the news in August 2016 when it was discovered that, James King, a teacher and head of year at the school had been stealing laptops and iPads to fund a gambling habit; in total he took the devices into different pawnbrokers to gain £1,620. He has since been banned from teaching indefinitely.[21]
The school achieved:
Basic Skills Quality Mark in November 2005.
Healthy Schools Award in spring 2006 and the Artsmark Silver Award in May 2006.[19]
School productions have included Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, performed in 2001, Alice in Wonderland, performed in 2002 and Oliver!, performed in 2003. The school staged another prefromance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 2008 to say farewell to the then Headteacher, Mrs Walker as this was the first performance she experienced at the school.
Notable former pupils include:
Brett Cullen, Groot's stunt double in Guardians of the Galaxy Two.
CBBC Presenter Chris Johnson who attended between 2000 and 2002, Who went on to attend Moorside High School.
Salford City Radio Presenter Lewis Ryan who attended until 2002, Who also went on to attend Moorside High School.
Composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, previously Master of the Queen's Music, was brought up in Swinton after his family moved from Salford when he was four.[22] In 1998, he wrote Swinton Jig, an orchestral work inspired by the sounds and traditional melodies heard in Swinton during his childhood.[23]
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