Pleasantly situated on the high ground overlooking the valley of the Trent is the village of Stanton-by-Bridge (Swarkeston). The De Stantons were lords of the manor for many generations. In the reign of Edward III., John Frances of Tickenhall married Margaret, daughter and heiress of John de Stanton, so the manor passed to the Frances family, and remained with them till an heiress of that house married Sir Thomas Burdett, Bart., of Bramcote, Warwickshire. About this time the manor was divided between the Burdetts and Harpurs, each, in turn, appointing to the living. Now it is in the sole patronage of the Harpur-Crewe family. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a small one, about 60 feet long, and consists of nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch with a bell turret on the west gable. The chancel arch, a plain semi-circular one, is considered to be Saxon, and the south doorway, ornamented with chevron, or zizag, and billet mouldings, is of the Norman period, not later than Stephen’s reign. There are several remains of incised sepulchral slabs, and also slabs of alabaster bearing incised effigies of the Sacheverell and Francis families. During a restoration in 1865, some of the older slabs were discovered, and were placed as they are now. About a mile south of Stanton is a farmhouse called St. Bride’s, supposed to be once a grange chapel of Burton Abbey. Built into its walls are many remains of Norman work, and in the yard are stone coffins, and other fragments of worked stone. BRETBY AND HARTSHORN. Three miles south of Repton is the village of Bretby. Like most of the land round, it used to belong to the Earls of Chester, from them it passed into the hands of the Segraves, who possessed, among other manors and estates, Coton-in-the-Elms, Rosliston, Linton, and Repton. In 1300 John de Segrave received a license to castellate his mansion at Bretby. Soon after it passed, with the manor, into the families of the Mowbrays, Dukes of Norfolk, and, through one of the co-heiresses of that family, to the Berkeleys, who, in 1585, sold it to Sir Thomas Stanhope, grandfather of Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield, and now, by descent, it belongs to the Earl of Carnarvon. [Illustration: Plate 18. Anchor Church. (Page 123.) Bretby Hall. (Page 104.)] It is not known when the castle was pulled down, but most probably in the days of Philip, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1585-1656), who built a mansion on the present site, within the park. The old castle stood on the land to the south-west of the church, the grass covered mounds indicate the foundations of a very strong fortress, consisting of two courts.