| Where: | River Thames from Sunbury Lock, Surrey (Monday) to Abingdon, Oxon (Friday |
| When: | Third Week of July |
| Time: | Starting 9am each day |
The swans in the River Thames all belong either to the Sovereign or to the Worshipful Companies of Vintners or Dyers who were granted the privilege of ownership by the Crown in the Fifteenth Century. Every year the beaks of cygnets used to be marked to show who they belonged to – if a bird had two nicks it belonged to the Vintners, if one to the Dyers and if none at all to the Crown. The process of marking the young birds and taking a census is called Swan Upping and it takes place over five days during July but nowadays the birds are tagged or ringed for identification instead . The birds are also weighed and a report is later produced on the health of the swan population for the year. The group of swan markers wear colourful livery and travel up the river in traditional Thames skiffs with flags a-flutter. There is a full schedule on the website (link below) and each day there are observation opportunities at intervals. Starting places are as follows : Monday Sunbury Lock, Tuesday Eton Bridge, Wednesday Marlow Bridge, Thursday Sonning on Thames, Friday Moulsford. Because the swan population is wild, it’s tricky to predict just where the Markers will come across birds to inspect and timings are of necessity flexible as a result.
Helpful Hints
In 2024 it took place from Monday 15th July to Friday 19th July – 2025 dates are yet to be confirmed, and keep checking the link below for approximate timings and any changes to the schedule.
Click here to find out more : http://www.royalswan.co.uk/
Swan Lifeline is a charity devoted to caring for sick and injured swans on the Thames – they have an open day each year, usually in September, and offer boat rides, visits to the swans and stalls & entertainments. Click here to visit their website: http://www.swanlifeline.org.uk/
I think the dates for 2015 need to be corrected – Friday is the 24th, not 25th
Thanks Lynne – all put right now!
Best wishes,
Averil
A detailed calendar of events was supposed to be published during May. Am unable to find it anywhere though it is now June!! Are you able to help and/or provide me with a link? Thanks
Hmmm…that’s the kind of problem that led to the creation of the calendarcustoms site in the first place so I understand your frustration! Try this link to the organisers website http://www.vintnershall.co.uk/?page=swan_upping which has more details of times and locations if you scroll well down the page. Hope that helps!
Best wishes,
Averil
Thanks so much. The govn. site said there would be further details in May but they weren’t there!! Glad the Vinters are better organized!! I really don’t like it when people say they will do things and then fail to do so. Many thanks to you.
No problem, Philippa!
I think when events take place in the same way each year, sometimes those who are familiar with the format forget that it’s all new to people who haven’t been before, and who need some guidance to make the most of them. We’re hoping to go for the first time this year so if you’re at Sunbury Lock on the Monday look out for us!
Best wishes,
Averil
The dates and times for 2015 Swan Upping are at: http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2015/SwanUpping.aspx
I went to this today – were you there? I first turned up at Shepperton Lock, and missed it by 10 minutes – the times on the website are approximate. Then I saw the boats go under Chertsey Bridge as I was crossing it, but I finally saw them pass at Truss’s Island, on the A320. ( http://www.thameswilderness.org.uk/842-2/ )
There is a flotilla of boats, carrying flags with a swan on it, passing along the Thames, followed by a couple of craft stuffed to the gunnels with press photographers. Truss’s Island has been set aside as a place to feed the waterfowl, and so there was a flock of swans. I saw a rowing boat with a couple of ladies make some notes about them, but they didn’t ring or measure them.
It was a fairly low key event from the riverbank, but it was lovely to watch.
We went to the first location at Sunbury Lock where the party set off – luckily for us a family of swans was present so we saw the weighing,ringing and measuring of the birds at close quarters. As they’re wild it’s very hard to predict where they’ll be on the day so we were very fortunate to see that part of the event – we wondered if we’d have to try to catch up at the various set points for the day and hope for the best! I’ll be putting some pics on the website when I’ve had a chance to edit them. Wish we’d seen you there!
Averil
This site http://www.royalswan.co.uk/ now lists the 2021 dates as 19 to 23 July.
Many thanks for the update- I wouldn’t have spotted that for another couple of weeks in my regular dates check, so I’ll get it on the site right away!
Want to walk from Reading Bridge to Sonning Bridge to catch the Swanupping on Thursday 21 2022. Train doesn’t get in to Reading until 10.01, will I be there in time? Last year waited at Reading Lock but can’t remember the time they arrived!
Hi Vivien,
I haven’t got that detailed a breakdown of the timings (and the Royal Swan link says all timings are approximate due to the nature of the event!) but on their own site it has the following for tomorrow:
Thursday 21st July 2022
Sonning-on-Thames 09.00 –Departure point
Caversham Lock 10.15
Mapledurham Lock 12.30
Goring Lock 17.00
Moulsford 18.00
There’s a link from Helpful Hints on the Calendar Customs site to the Swan markers office with phone number and email contacts- if you need more detail it might be worth you giving that a go? The link is to https://www.royalswan.co.uk
Hope you manage to see it!
Best wishes,
Averil