Chapel's swifts, part 1: Why do they matter?

We've been so busy over the last two weeks, raising awareness of the plight of swifts at Chapel Milton Viaducts, so we thought we should share a little of why we are so concerned and how we got here. 

Swifts across the UK are in steep decline and need help from everyone - from individuals to organisations - to protect and enhance their nesting opportunities. Swifts matter everywhere, but in this first post, we want to explain exactly why the swifts of Chapel‑en‑le‑Frith matter to us, before turning, in Part 2, to what’s happening now and what we’re doing about it.

Photo credit: Deborah Pitman

The magnificent Chapel Milton Viaducts on the edge of Chapel-en-le-Frith are home to a swift population that has built up over 160 years since the Western Viaduct was opened in 1867. These fabulous Grade II listed structures have several little crevices where these tiny birds nest and breed. These nest sites have been threatened by Network Rail's renovation of the Viaducts, which has led to some of those crevices being mortared up.

We're a little town with a big past

Chapel-en-le-Frith celebrated its 800th birthday last year. Like many Derbyshire towns and villages, there are families here that have been present for generations - local people will tell you as much, but any bit of digging into local history will soon highlight the same surnames that come up time and again in census data, registers of births and deaths, in gazetteers, and on gravestones. The Bagshaws and Friths, the Carringtons and the Lomases, the Garlicks and the Bradshaws... and so many more. Human family lineages, deeply rooted in geography.

Our ancestors - right back to our founding in 1225 - will have anticipated and enjoyed the arrival of swifts in May every year. And because the swifts have an extraordinary bond with the area they were born, the swifts we saw here in 2025 were the direct descendants of the same local breeding lines that were visiting in 1225.

Our shared history with swifts

A swift born in a crack in a Chapel-en-le-Frith eaves or wall will travel to Africa and back, thousands of miles, only to navigate back to Chapel to breed. And once they have found a mate, and a breeding site of their own near the rest of their family, they both come back every single year to the same exact place to breed.

Swifts will, of course, have been summer residents here for centuries before 1225. But the growth of the village, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, must have been a boom time for them: Chapel was a collection of stone barns and houses - a swift paradise. The built environment created by local families (the quarrymen and builders and farmers) is one likely reason the swift lineages thrived here. Humans built for themselves, but in doing so, they also built an ancestral seat for the birds. Swift family lineages, deeply rooted in geography.

We have a legacy to protect for future generations

A local farmer, leaning on a drystone wall in 1726, would have looked up at the same local families of swifts that someone returning home from an evening shop at Morrison's might see and hear above them in 2026. 

When we fight to protect these birds isn't just "swifts" in a general sense; it is a specific, local dynasty of swifts that belongs to Chapel as much as any family in the churchyard. We must do everything we can to protect them so that their descendants and ours can continue to enjoy this wonderful home.

 Coming up: Chapel's swifts, part 2: What's been going on with the Chapel Milton Viaducts?