Swattenden is a small settlement in the parish of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst in England.
It is situated on the B2086 (Swattenden Lane) about from Hartley, where the A229 crosses the settlement. It has an agricultural/country shop, a fruit farm and a fishing centre.
<!--The name has three distinct elements:
- swatt refers to the pigs who were brought here by monks.
- ten refers to the monks from Thanet who brought them here to graze.
- den refers to a clearing in the woods. Many years ago the surrounding area was covered by forest.- this sounds a little fanciful- a den is a pig pasture-->
Swattenden House
Swattenden House is a mansion built in 1860. It was the site of Swattenden Secondary School for Boys which moved to Angley School in 1972. It then became the "Swattenden Centre", a Kent County Council residential education centre, in 1976. It was used to house asylum seekers for a number of years.
Toponymy
The suffix -enden is found in many place names in the Kentish Weald, meaning the pasture or clearing in the forest belonging to the people of a named person. Here the person was called Swaeðel. In 1240, the Old English Swaeðeling denn, was written as Swetlingdenn, in 1260 it was spelled Swetlyngdenne and in 1305 Swethyngden.