The incline was constructed in 1832 to enable coal from the mines in the Swannington valley to be hauled up to the upper level of the Railway for onward transmission to Leicester by means of a stationary winding engine. This was brought into use in 1833. Coal was delivered to the base of the incline by means of three horse-drawn tram-roads from the mines in the village and from others further north. These mines, leased from the Wyggeston Hospital Trust, suffered from ingress of water held up in earlier mining operations and when the mineral leases began to run out the lessees reduced their operation and the incline became less used.

The engine house and adjacent cottages were demolished and a local demolition contractor who began to fill the cutting purchased the site of the Incline from British Rail. The local District Council prohibited this work and the site was virtually abandoned to nature. Prior to the sale by British Rail, the platform of a cart bridge located at Potato Lane was removed and the badly corroded abutments were buried in mine shale. A road bridge at Church Lane had been damaged by mine subsidence and so this was both stowed with and encapsulated in mine shale. A farm accommodation bridge, built attractively in local sandstone, was also damaged by subsidence and was partially demolished by explosive.

The Leicestershire Industrial History Society featured the "History of the Leicester and Swannington Railway" as its contribution to the E.M.I.A.C. programme in 1980, in commemoration of the Act of Parliament which authorised the formation of the Railway Company one hundred and fifty years before. Members attending the conference visited the site of the former Swannington Incline, the terminal three quarter mile section of the railway, in the afternoon and found a scene of dereliction, the incline's cutting being very overgrown with brambles and nettles and in parts blocked by mounds of mine waste. All that could be detected of the Incline engine winding house was an enormous pile of masonry covered with briars and nettles.

In 1981, sparked by the interest raised by the E.M.I.A.C. conference, a village fete was organised in the following year to celebrate the arrival of one of the world's earliest railways to the village. A Swannington Festival committee was formed and arrangements made for a week-long Festival. Heritage sites in the village were identified and included sites of mining operations going back about 800 years; remains of horse-drawn tram-roads including part of the Coleorton railway; remains of a tower windmill; the site of a 17th century Tan yard; sites of blasting-powder magazines and of course the Incline. Details of interesting social history were also researched and the findings were published in "The Swannington Village Trail", several thousand copies of which have by now been sold. Footpaths along the routes of the horse-drawn tram-roads and of the Incline were cleared of both rubbish and vegetation to allow permitted public access during the Festival week and a Victorian school house, adjoining the school, was re-equipped in appropriate style.

The Festival Group reorganised itself to form "Swannington Heritage Trust", and subsequently gained registered charity Status. This enabled us, with support from Leicestershire County Council and the North West Leicestershire District Council, to take up an offer to purchase the site of Swannington Incline. We also were able to purchase the derelict site of the former Snibston No. 3 Colliery which is located opposite the entrance to the Incline and which contained an additional length of railway track-bed. We set to work with a will to clear the cutting and embankment of the incline of the detritus of thirty years. We provided steps over the mounds encapsulating both Potato Lane and Church Lane bridges and made more safe the footpath over the remains of the Cattle Arch. Then in 1984, with the mixed blessing of assistance from a Manpower Services Training scheme, the Snibston Colliery site was cleared, landscaped and planted with 300 trees and shrubs to provide a car park for visiting parties and an amenity area for villagers.

Clearing the site of the Engine-house. In the following year another M.S.C. team carried out a clearance of the masonry mound over the site of the Engine house and cottages. Under our supervision the foundations of the buildings and the various pits for engine components were excavated. These revealed the details of the pit in which the winding drum was mounted, the pit over which the engine was mounted, the pit in which the flywheel and band brake were located and the well in which the condenser was located. Clearance of the boiler house floor revealed the boiler mounting frame, the stoking hole, the flue plate and the base of the chimney. This excavation was carefully recorded both photographically and by measurements of the remains in an attempt to interpret the layout of the engine winding mechanism. During the excavation a length of Leicester and Swannington fish-belly type rail was recovered together with nuts from the engine's holding-down bolts and the spanner, which was used to tighten them. The nuts had been flame-cut to release the engine from its bed. The foot pedal and ratchet, a rope support roller, a rail shoe and an uncoupling hook were also recovered.

The foundations of the cottages provided details of their ground floor layout and the blue-brick footings of the control-man's hut identified its position on the site. A control rod between the hut and the drum-pit was also found. In 1996 the Trust won the National Award for Environmental Action of the Age Resource organisation and we used the £1000 award to help us refill most of the excavations. Pits, which contained steam valves and the condenser arrangement, were sealed using weld-mesh covers so that these features can be still examined. A sacrificial layer of bricks was laid to protect the foundations and clearly show the layout of buildings. The whole site is now tidy, more manageable and more vandal resistant.

Work on the Incline. Our next task was to clear the incline and we were encouraged in this when a local business man loaned us the use of both a "Hymac" machine with driver and a lorry to remove deposited waste masonry from the top 15 yards of the Incline in order to re-establish the slope, which was cleared of debris and scrub down to Potato Lane bridge. Rubbish was removed from the embankment, enabling an examination of the site of the safety-end. Potato Lane bridge had been buried in mine shale when the incline was dismantled and in 1984 half of this mound which encapsulated the abutments was removed. These were found to be in a very damaged state but we were able to recover bridge-plate No.2.

The excavation revealed that the bridge abutments were originally constructed in red brick and there was evidence that, when later they had begun to collapse, attempts had been made to stabilise the structure by insertion of steel rods, grouted into the bedded sandstone and fitted with iron cross plates to clamp the brickwork. It is reported that, in 1908 the Midland Railway Co. found it necessary to stabilise the damaged walls by surrounding them with a structure of engineering blue bricks which still survive. In 1996 the remaining structure was made more stable by the installation of stone gabions and a wooden platform footbridge was assembled over the incline. This work was jointly funded by the Trust and by Leicestershire County Council.

Church Lane Bridge. The banks of the cutting between Potato Lane bridge and Church Lane bridge were cleared in 1987 by a Manpower services team but work to remove the mine-shale which encapsulated both sides of Church Lane Bridge had to wait until 1994 when the County Council raised the necessary funds to carry out a complete reconstruction. The bridge over the incline carried a highway and, since the structure had been severely damaged by mine subsidence, it was necessary to make it strong enough for traffic. The whole of the existing damaged sandstone structure was therefore removed and a steel-reinforced concrete bridge was built and was finally faced in brick.

Below Church Lane bridge the incline moves on to an embankment and the undergrowth on this was cleared to make a footpath for the Festival in 1982. Various artefacts were found on this section including a length of steel winding rope and a rope support roller.

Cattle Arch Bridge. The embankment carries the track bed down to Cattle Arch bridge, which spanned a cart road under the track. The former elegant sandstone structure was badly affected by mine subsidence in the 1940s and the National Coal Board had blown down the damaged structure in the 1950s to remove the hazard, leaving a pile of rubble on the site. The bridge was superbly rebuilt for the Trust by local mineworkers in 1986, prior to the closure of the last mines in nearby Coalville.

The original bridge was in the form of a Norman arch but the new bridge was formed by use of standard mine-roadway arches.

Drainage Culvert. Near to Cattle Arch bridge is a culvert which carries the village stream under the incline embankment. This was also damaged by mine subsidence and it was necessary to carry out repairs to this in 1987 to avoid erosion of the embankment. Thus the Swannington Inclined Plane has been recovered and, although private property of the Trust, is available for most of the year to walkers and students of both railway history and wildlife. Interpretation boards have been installed at significant positions on the Incline.

The Incline features in the Trust's "Swannington Village Trail " booklet. The Trust provides guided walks around the Trail for parties by arrangement with Denis Baker on ++44 (0)1530 222330 or at denis.baker@which.net

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