Our town’s proud swan tradition
Reporter I was very interested to read John Cobbett’s letter regarding Maidstone’s swans.
As the landlady of the Swan public house in County Road (there was a Swan pub in the High Street in 1832) we have done some research into this. It first came to our notice on a tour of the Town Hall where swans are used as a decorative feature on the walls.
It all dates back to a charter by Elizabeth I dated December 4 1559 and augmented by a charter of King James I dated July 12 1619. We have a copy displayed in the pub should any one care to have a look.
Julius Caesar remarked that Celtic tribes in Britain considered it “unlawful” to eat swans, which were sacred birds. However by the 12th century they were thought to be a delicacy and were being hunted to extinction. So laws were imposed forbidding anyone from killing them except with permission of the Crown.
The privileged few who were allowed to breed and own swans were granted a “swan mark”. Once a year, all the swans on a river were rounded up and, in the presence of the King’s swanherd (who kept the index of bills), cygnets were marked with the insignia of their parents. Any unmarked swan discovered on open waters automatically belonged to the Crown.
As domestic poultry became more common, swans became less valuable. The importance of swan upping began to diminish and by the 1850s few people retained their rights to own swans. Now it’s the Queen, the Mayor of Maidstone and a couple of London Guilds.
Swan upping in Maidstone has taken place once a year, since 1559, as part of the Mayor’s court of survey cruise. Unfortunately, Maidstone’s swan master Eric Philp, died in January 2013 and I think it has been difficult to replace him. But I consider it important to keep the tradition alive. Jackie Hipwell, The Swan, Maidstone