Swineshead Abbey

A house, built in 1607 for Sir John Lockton on the site of a former Cistercian Abbey, with alterations in the early 19th century and 20th century. The house reuses remains of the earlier abbey. It is constructed from coursed and squared limestone rubble, with lined stucco, a hipped slate roof, limestone rendered ridge and wall stacks, and a brick gable stack. The building follows an L-shaped plan.

The garden front has two stories plus attics and five irregular bays. It features a tall plinth, an ashlar first floor band, a moulded wooden eaves board, and a centrally placed 20th-century half-glazed door in a matching wooden surround. To the right of the door is a single glazing bar sash window, and to the left are three. All ground floor windows have splayed ashlar lintels and keystones. Four similar windows are located on the first floor. A 19th-century escutcheon is positioned below the first floor band. The roof includes three dormer windows, each with a glazing bar sash and a leaded segmental head.

On the right-hand side of the garden front is a reset 13th-century effigy of a knight, missing lower part, and dressed in chain mail and surcoat. Above it is a reset datestone, inscribed "WEL 1607", referencing Lockton. To its right is a 19th-century stuccoed two-story wing with glazing bar sashes. At the left end of the garden front is a full-height sash window above an armorial panel inscribed “ILF.”

The interior was largely refitted in the early 19th and 20th centuries, with a stick baluster staircase featuring a wreathed handrail, and contemporaneous joinery.

The abbey was founded in 1134 by Robert de Gresley; local tradition holds that King John spent the night here after losing his baggage in the Wash on 12th October 1216.