Swans ahoy!
Just for a second, imagine that you are a cygnet on the River Thames. It’s midsummer and you are pottering along with your dazzling white parents, dabbling and minding your own business, when suddenly there is a cry of ‘All up!’
Within moments you are gently but firmly surrounded by a ring of elegant, varnished skiffs, each rowed by a team of men in white breeches and shirts in primary colours. Their leader sports a dazzling scarlet jacket, white ducks – of the trouser variety – and a black nautical cap decorated with a jaunty swan feather. Two other men have feathers in their caps as well. You are fished out of the river, weighed, examined and a ring, maybe two, will be put on your ankle before you are returned to the water and the whole merry cavalcade departs upstream. You have just taken part in your first swan-upping.
Every summer, between Sunbury, on the nontidal Thames just outside London, and Abingdon, around 80 miles upstream, new broods of swans are patiently checked over and marked in this way by three teams of men, each with a pair of skiffs, all of whom are working members of the Worshipful Company of Watermen and Lightermen.
The Queen's swan-uppers wear traditional uniforms. Inset: Swan-upper Herbert Turk at Chiswick, 1939
One team represents the Crown (the man in the scarlet jacket is Her Majesty’s swan marker), the second, the Worshipful Company of Dyers, and the third, the Worshipful Company of Vintners. Also present are the Queen’s swan warden – in fact a professor from the University of Oxford – and swan welfare personnel.
They are enacting an ancient custom that originally existed to count all swans on open water in Britain: all white mute swans were once the property of the Crown, birds reserved for the royal table and strictly forbidden to anyone else. In the 1400s, however, two City of London livery com-panies, the Dyers and Vintners, were granted the right to share ownership, and today the ritual only takes place in a limited form, on the River Thames itself, watched by amazed tourists passing on riverboats.
The lovely thing about the whole leisurely process is that you can watch it from any convenient spot on the river, preferably from a bridge – at Eton, say – or at Boulter’s Lock, leaning on the parapet to watch the men go about their business. The swans eventually escape, outraged, and spend a good five minutes slapping their wings in the air and flinging river water over themselves to get rid of the awful smell of human. Then they swan off, literally, heads held high, free for another year.
The humans, meanwhile, add in all sorts of extra rituals. Not just the banquet; there is also a larger boat on the river in Upping week, filled with liverymen (and women) and general bonhomie, that follows the whole process, but with cover from the rain and liberal pro- vision of refreshments. There are stops at certain points on the river and local schools come down to watch the fun. As the procession passes Windsor Castle, the rowers stand up in their boats – no easy feat, I can tell you – raise their oars and salute ‘Her Majesty The Queen, Seigneur of the Swans’.
The ceremony takes place at this time of year because at least one of each pair of adult birds will be in moult and unable to fly.
Swan-upping at Trowlock Island in 1930
In the old days they marked the swans with notches on their beaks, but now each swan has a British Ornithology Society (BOS) ring on one leg and a Dyers’ or Vintners’ ring on the other. The Queen’s swans always remain unmarked, so have only an ornithology ring on one leg.
For all its eccentricities, annual swan-upping still has relevance. ‘The records give us a good population picture,’ explains the Dyers’ bargemaster. ‘I can see from this swan’s ring, say, that I marked it four years ago.’ He adds that in times gone by they celebrated with a delicious banquet of roast swan.
‘We still have the banquet,’ he says, ‘but it’s not swan now. It’s goose.’
If you are hiring a self-drive boat, do be incredibly careful around the swans and skiffs. For boat hire and cruises, see the River Thames Guide: www.riverthames.co.uk
Canal And River Trust: www.waterscape.com
Salter’s Steamers are open-sided passenger boats that trundle up and down the Thames daily, perfect for getting good views of the swan-upping: 01865-243421, www.salterssteamers.co.uk
Donations are warmly welcomed by Swan Lifeline: www.swanlifeline.org.uk
For more information about swan-upping: www.royalswan.co.uk
You can download an excellent brochure on the subject from the Royal Events And Ceremonies section at www.royal.gov.uk
Within moments you are gently but firmly surrounded by a ring of elegant, varnished skiffs, each rowed by a team of men in white breeches and shirts in primary colours. Their leader sports a dazzling scarlet jacket, white ducks – of the trouser variety – and a black nautical cap decorated with a jaunty swan feather. Two other men have feathers in their caps as well. You are fished out of the river, weighed, examined and a ring, maybe two, will be put on your ankle before you are returned to the water and the whole merry cavalcade departs upstream. You have just taken part in your first swan-upping.
Every summer, between Sunbury, on the nontidal Thames just outside London, and Abingdon, around 80 miles upstream, new broods of swans are patiently checked over and marked in this way by three teams of men, each with a pair of skiffs, all of whom are working members of the Worshipful Company of Watermen and Lightermen.
The Queen's swan-uppers wear traditional uniforms. Inset: Swan-upper Herbert Turk at Chiswick, 1939One team represents the Crown (the man in the scarlet jacket is Her Majesty’s swan marker), the second, the Worshipful Company of Dyers, and the third, the Worshipful Company of Vintners. Also present are the Queen’s swan warden – in fact a professor from the University of Oxford – and swan welfare personnel.
They are enacting an ancient custom that originally existed to count all swans on open water in Britain: all white mute swans were once the property of the Crown, birds reserved for the royal table and strictly forbidden to anyone else. In the 1400s, however, two City of London livery com-panies, the Dyers and Vintners, were granted the right to share ownership, and today the ritual only takes place in a limited form, on the River Thames itself, watched by amazed tourists passing on riverboats.
The lovely thing about the whole leisurely process is that you can watch it from any convenient spot on the river, preferably from a bridge – at Eton, say – or at Boulter’s Lock, leaning on the parapet to watch the men go about their business. The swans eventually escape, outraged, and spend a good five minutes slapping their wings in the air and flinging river water over themselves to get rid of the awful smell of human. Then they swan off, literally, heads held high, free for another year.
The humans, meanwhile, add in all sorts of extra rituals. Not just the banquet; there is also a larger boat on the river in Upping week, filled with liverymen (and women) and general bonhomie, that follows the whole process, but with cover from the rain and liberal pro- vision of refreshments. There are stops at certain points on the river and local schools come down to watch the fun. As the procession passes Windsor Castle, the rowers stand up in their boats – no easy feat, I can tell you – raise their oars and salute ‘Her Majesty The Queen, Seigneur of the Swans’.
The ceremony takes place at this time of year because at least one of each pair of adult birds will be in moult and unable to fly.
Swan-upping at Trowlock Island in 1930In the old days they marked the swans with notches on their beaks, but now each swan has a British Ornithology Society (BOS) ring on one leg and a Dyers’ or Vintners’ ring on the other. The Queen’s swans always remain unmarked, so have only an ornithology ring on one leg.
For all its eccentricities, annual swan-upping still has relevance. ‘The records give us a good population picture,’ explains the Dyers’ bargemaster. ‘I can see from this swan’s ring, say, that I marked it four years ago.’ He adds that in times gone by they celebrated with a delicious banquet of roast swan.
‘We still have the banquet,’ he says, ‘but it’s not swan now. It’s goose.’
ENJOYING BRITAIN’S SWANS
The swan-upping exhibition at the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames, runs until next May, with archive photos and Pathé footage of swan-upping in the 1960s: 01491-415600, www.rrm.co.ukIf you are hiring a self-drive boat, do be incredibly careful around the swans and skiffs. For boat hire and cruises, see the River Thames Guide: www.riverthames.co.uk
Canal And River Trust: www.waterscape.com
Salter’s Steamers are open-sided passenger boats that trundle up and down the Thames daily, perfect for getting good views of the swan-upping: 01865-243421, www.salterssteamers.co.uk
Donations are warmly welcomed by Swan Lifeline: www.swanlifeline.org.uk
For more information about swan-upping: www.royalswan.co.uk
You can download an excellent brochure on the subject from the Royal Events And Ceremonies section at www.royal.gov.uk