A warm welcome awaits you for the KT83 geocaching event at:
The Swan With Two Nicks
Park Lane,
Little Bollington,
Altrincham,
Cheshire,
WA14 4TJ
The event will be from 6.00pm till 10.00pm and the usual format will be followed of Food, Drink and Geochat, but you can do them in any order you choose and some more than once if you wish.
I have reserved the area at the back of the pub (inside of course) for the event where the usual activities mentioned above can take place. It is intended that a few caches will be published on the night around 8.00pm for a walk around the area, but it can get wet and muddy after rain, so appropriate footwear is required. It is hoped that the well known "April Showers" will not attend in the days before or during the event.
Please may I ask you to indicate in your "Will Attend" log, how many people are attending and how many eating so I can keep the pub informed. Thank you.
The menu can be viewed at: http://www.swanwithtwonicks.co.uk/menus/
THE ORIGINS OF THE NAME
From the 12th century, the monarch has retained the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but in practice only exercised ownership on certain stretches of the Thames. At that time swans were a common food source for royalty.
Swan upping became the means of establishing a swan census. Under a 15th century Royal Charter, the Vintners’ Company and the Dyers’ Company, two Livery Companies of the City of London, are entitled to share in the Sovereign’s ownership and it is they who conduct the census through a process of ringing the swans’ feet.
The annual swan upping takes place during the third week of July. During the ceremony, the Queen’s, the Vintners’, and the Dyers’ Swan Uppers row up the river in skiffs. Swans caught by the Queen’s Swan Uppers under the direction of the Swan Marker are ringed. Those caught by the Dyers and Vintners are identified as theirs by means of a further ring on the other leg. Today, only swans with cygnets are caught and ringed. This gives a yearly snapshot as to how well Thames swans are breeding.
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. This practice provided the name of our pub “The Swan with Two Nicks”. This was a 16th century pun, the word “nick” also meaning “neck”. Humour wasn’t quite what it is today… So we also find a lot of pubs called The Swan with Two Necks.