Not involved but in previous years have cruised upriver with them and even stayed at Byrons a couple of times at the same time as the escort boats, one of which is in my marina at Chertsey.
Did you know the rowers get bussed to the Great House Hotel at Sonning every night and back again in the morning !
Took this last year when they arrived at Abingdon:
The support boats stay here every year and have done so for over 20 years. We have a huge BBQ and I think Clive & Jill Folley supply all the steaks. I just eat as much as I can to delay going back to the scraps of Chappie I normally live on.
Today Programme, Radio 4 this morning. Swan Upping is apparently one of the 'functions' to be included in a review commissioned by Gordie with a view to doing away with the Royal Perogative and scrapping archaic practices. He's probably heard about the cost of ferrying the rowers backwards and forwards to posh hotels!
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Today Programme, Radio 4 this morning. Swan Upping is apparently one of the 'functions' to be included in a review commissioned by Gordie with a view to doing away with the Royal Perogative and scrapping archaic practices. He's probably heard about the cost of ferrying the rowers backwards and forwards to posh hotels!
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He'll probably scrap Parliament then, it's more expensive to run than the upping, and almost as useful The rowers will be earning their keep this year with the flow rate.
There were six skiffs in Hambledon lock, which was spoilt - appearance-wise - by the presence of the Maidenhead "Georgian" booze boat and it's sister craft a pretend sternwheeler.
Noticing that two City livery companies are part of the enterprise, I can only assume that the well-oiled occupants of the trip boats were doing a similar thing to their internal organs /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Sorry, the best I can do at this time
The annual Upping has obviously lost much of its meaning, but it is a colourful sight, but few folk are aware of it; especially as the timings are a bit approximate. That nice man at Marsh kindly gave me a glossy booklet which was a bit short of any solid detail, other than that Cygnets are cuddly...
If GBrown is indeed looking at further decolourising our lives, perhaps he might change the ceremony to D(r)owning the Canadian Geese instead.
Swans are lovely but CGs are a menace underfoot and to crops (and quite often disrupt a good night's sleep)