Pictures: All up! the cry of the Swan Uppers as they head up the Thames
Pictures by Phil Cannings
The colourful spectacle of the Swan Uppers passed along the Thames in West Berkshire on Thursday as onlookers gathered at locks and on the riverbank to watch.
This year our photographer Phil Cannings stationed himself at Pangbourne and Purley on Thames to catch the flotilla of boats as they came up river for their day’s work on the stretch from Sonning-on-Thames to Moulsford, starting at 9am taking in Caversham Lock, Mapledurham Lock Goring Lock and reaching Moulsford by the evening. The annual Swan Upping used to take place between London and Henley, but nowadays the journey begins at Sunbury and ends at Abingdon, the Uppers taking five days to cover the 79 miles.
Dressed in red and blue uniforms The Swan Uppers travelled in six traditional wooden skiffs, two each for The Queen and the Vintners and the Dyers livery companies, with each boat flying their flags and pennants.
Swan Upping is important to the conservation of the mute swan and involves The Queen’s Swan Warden collecting data, assessing the health of young cygnets and examining them for injuries. Cygnets are extremely vulnerable at this early stage in their development and Swan Upping helps both adults and cygnets that might otherwise go untreated. They are also weighed and measured to assess their growth rate.
The most common cause of injury is fishing tackle; swans often swallow baited hooks or swim through fishing lines and become entangled. Pollution has become an increasing problem, particularly over the last year. Some of the more minor injuries can be dealt with on the riverbank, but others, such as a swallowed hook, may require an expensive operation and a period of recuperation, when the birds have to be taken to a rescue organisation for treatment.
It is often thought, wrongly - that the Crown owns all swans.The Queen’s Swan Marker David Barber - resplendent in red and easily recognised by the feather in his cap - establishes the ownership of the parent swans and determines how ownership of the cygnets should be allocated. The markers of the two Livery Companies then place their rings on the cygnets’ legs then return them to the river, taking care that they do not become separated from their parents.
On locating a family of swans, the Uppers give the cry “All-Up!” and the boats converge on the brood and surround it, gradually closing in until the birds can be lifted and taken ashore for examination and marking. Originally, the two companies made their own marks on the birds’ beaks; one nick for a Dyers’ bird and two for a Vintners’. Today, the two companies use their own rings and the Crown’s swans are left unmarked.
