Swan Upping: On Monday 14 July 2008 I caught a practice again from Hull in order to be again in Staines in time to satisfy the Swan Uppers because the final boats within the flotilla had been leaving the Swan in Staines (or Egham Hythe) after stopping for lunch.
Each July two teams of Thames Watermen make their means upstream from Sunbury to Abingdon following a practice established not lengthy after the Norman conquest, although the earliest clear written data solely date again to 1186.
Possession of swans remains to be managed by historical legal guidelines, with the Crown claiming possession of all unmarked swans on open water.
In medieval occasions, swans, or relatively cygnets, had been an essential supply of meals and plenty of had the proper to personal swans. Upping in these occasions was a means of building possession and taking some cygnets to be fattened for the tables, however leaving sufficient birds to take care of the swan inhabitants at a wholesome degree. The upping was carried out in July when the cygnets had been nonetheless too younger to have the ability to fly away and escape.
As we speak solely three our bodies other than the Crown have maintained the proper to personal swans, a household with a Swannery on a lake in Abbotsbury and two London Livery firms who train their rights on these on the Thames.
The Vintners had been formally granted their rights in 1472 and the Dyers at across the identical date, although their proper was then granted ‘by prescription’, a authorized time period which means that they had had the proper so long as the legislation might bear in mind – formally for the reason that accession of Richard I in 1189.
Through the years chickens and geese which may very well be simply farmed changed swans as a supply of meals, and swans are actually a protected species and it’s unlawful to kill them. The Royal Household should still retain the proper to eat them, together with the fellows of St John’s School, Cambridge however neither physique now does so.
In newer occasions, Swan Upping has come to play “an essential function within the conservation of the mute swan and includes the King’s Swan Warden amassing information, assessing the well being of younger cygnets and analyzing them for any accidents.” The cygnets claimed by the Dyers and the Vintners used to have their beaks nicked with distinctive marks, however now the birds are merely ringed and their weight and size recorded earlier than being returned fastidiously to the river, the place they swim away apparently unaffected by their expertise.
Six Thames skiffs rowed by watermen, two boats every for the Royal Swan Uppers, the Dyers and the Vintners make their means upstream, retaining a lookout for swans with cygnets. They put on purple shirts for the Royals, blue for the Dyers and white for the Vintners.
Again after I first photographed the Uppers, many of the scouting for cygnets was really carried out by an aged man on a bicycle who I bought to know barely, and I rode alongside behind him. When Eric noticed the birds he would attempt to entice them to an appropriate spot on the financial institution with the assistance of crushed digestive biscuits.
In newer years, a small dinghy with an outboard motor carrying the Warden of the Swans, on Oxford professor, has usually pushed slightly forward of the fleet to find the swans. The traditional publish of Keeper of the Kings Swans had been break up into two new posts in 1993, the opposite half being the Marker of the Swans, who’s rowed in one of many Royal skiffs.
Following behind the skiffs is a small flotilla of river cruisers, which features a launch for the press. I did as soon as e book a spot on this, however my place was cancelled shortly earlier than the occasion when the main companies and newspapers took an uncommon curiosity, I feel as a result of the royals had been taking an uncommon curiosity.
However for many functions, biking alongside the towpath is one of the simplest ways to cowl the Swan Upping, and I used to be usually there on the financial institution minutes earlier than these on the press launch had been in a position to land and be part of me. And the financial institution was normally the most effective place to be, nearer to the motion than the press launch might get.
On the finish of the day the skiffs line up collectively in Romney Lock the place the boys placed on their jackets and get up of their boats to toast the Sovereign’s well being.
From Romney lock I ran round 1 / 4 of a mile alongside the riverside path the place the Dyers and Vintners stand of their boats with oars vertical to salute the Royal uppers who go previous between them with their oars raised, earlier than all six boats row off to the boathouse at Eton, with one other 4 days of upping forward of them.
Extra footage from the 2008 Swan Upping on My London Dairy the place it’s also possible to see many extra footage from earlier years:
- Shepperton-Staines, Jul 2001
- Shepperton, Staines, Egham, Outdated Windsor, Jul 2004
- Shepperton, Staines, Egham, Outdated Windsor, Jul 2005
- Chertsey, Staines, Egham, Jul 2006
- Laleham to Windsor, Jul 2007
Particulars of this 12 months’s Swan Upping which begins on Monday fifteenth July 2024 are on the web site of the Swan Marker to His Majesty the King. If the climate is sweet I’d stroll down and take a number of footage.
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Pictures – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Pictures
All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Tags: conservation, Dyers, King’s Swan Warden, London Pictures, Marker of the Swans, mute swan, peter Marshall, River Thames, Romney Lock. Royal toast, Royal Swan Uppers, Runnemede, Runnymede, skiffs, Staines, Swan marker, Swan Uppers, Swan Upping, Swan Warden, swans, Thames, Vintners, Warden of the Swans, watermen
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