Palace’s famed bell-ringing swans fall silent after 150 years
MUTE swans that ring a bell when they want to be fed have been a feature of Bishop’s Palace in Wells for more than 150 years.
The birds use their beaks to pull a rope which sounds a bell and prompts their caretakers to throw food down from a window.
The ritual draws thousands of visitors a year to the moat around the traditional home of the Bishops of the Diocese of Bath and Wells.
However, the tradition is now under threat after a swan left the moat with its cygnets following the death of its partner. It has left the palace without a resident breeding pair for the first time in a generation.
Wynn, the female swan, left its moat home earlier this month after Brynn, its partner, died in April. Wynn had hatched five cygnets in May, one of which departed earlier this year, but keepers have not seen Wynn or the four remaining cygnets since last Thursday. Staff believe the family flew off to the nearby Somerset Levels.
Moira Anderson, the staff member in charge of caring for the birds, said Wynn was likely to have “headed off in search of a swan community, as older swans and non-breeding juveniles are known to enjoy living in large groups”.
She added that the palace “fully intends to ensure that the tradition continues” and said staff were working alongside local swan sanctuaries to find a suitable pair of breeding birds.
The tradition of swans at Bishop’s Palace dates back to the 1850s, when Bishop Eden’s daughter, Maria, taught a pair of swans to ring a bell outside the caretaker’s sitting room.
The sitting room sits just above the water line and placed outside the window is an old bell attached to a rope.
To train the swans, bread is tied in clumps to the rope which attracts them to pull it off, causing the bell to ring.
Gradually, less and less bread is placed on the rope as the swans quickly understand that food follows after they pull on the rope and the bell is sounded.