SWINTON, a large village of Lancashire, is situated on several railway lines, 5 miles north-west of Manchester and 6 south-east of Bolton. The Swinton industrial schools, opened in February 1846, are a fine range of buildings of brick with stone facings, surrounded with grounds extending to 20 acres. The church of St Peter, a fine building of stone with a lofty western tower, was erected from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott in 1869. The manufacture of cotton and coal mining are the chief industries. Anciently a large part of Swinton was possessed by the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem. Swinton members ; its population, estimated at 14,052 for 1871, amounted in 1881 to 18,107.