Swan Upping on the Thames

Meet David Barber. You can see him in his resplendent brass buttoned red blazer emblazoned with the royal insignia as he is rowed up the river from Sudbury to Abingdon by Thames watermen. He is The Queen's Swan Marker and between 17 and 21 July he is making his annual swan census on this beautiful reach of the Thames, an 800 year old custom known as Swan Upping.

Most of the swans living on Britain's waterways belong to the Crown, a status enjoyed by these graceful white birds since the 12th Century. Since that time the Sovereign has protected the graceful bird and employed a member of the royal household as Swan Master. It is his job to count the season's new cygnets and, with the Queen's Swan Warden, ( a position currently held by a professor at Oxford University), to check that the swan population is being maintained in a healthy environment. Each of this season's new cygnets is ringed and tallied by the Warden

Until the turkey took its place, the swan, along with the peacock, was considered a banqueting delicacy to be served up at Royal feasts in Westminster Hall or in Henry VIII's Great Tudor Hall at Hampton Court. During these times strict medieval game laws with harsh penalties were administered by the sovereign in the preservation of the royal bird.

50 years ago the ancient royal privilege of swan ownership might have disappeared. Their royal status, together with the 800 year old Palace position of Swan Marker and Swan Warden and the royal ceremony of swan upping each July was scrutinised by Parliament with a view to cost cutting and leaving the birds to look after themselves. But when Parliament looked at the question of swan welfare in detail it became obvious that behind the ceremonial and royal livery lay an animal rights and welfare cause worth supporting if swans were to continue to thrive and grace the Thames with their beauty. The birds are no longer eaten, but protective laws are still in force

The Queen's Swan Marker and Warden are accompanied on their week's journey by members of the two ancient Guilds of Vintners and Dyers who, thanks to an impecunious King Edward IV, (1461-83), were granted charter rights of swan ownership on the Thames in return for financial loans. The procession of 6 pennanted thames skiffs with their liveried 'swan uppers' is rowed slowly up the Thames, as the Marker 'ups' the swans, checks them for injuries caused by vandals or angler's fish hooks and line, etc. As they pass beneath the towering walls of Windsor Castle the Queen's Swan Marker gives the loyal toast "Her Majesty The Queen, Seigneur of the Swans."

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