The Great Hospital - Swan pit

Image: © Evelyn Simak Taken: 7 Jan 2020

The east wing of Suffield Court can be seen in the background. Another rare survival is the Great Hospital's swan pit which (together with the adjoining sluice) is Grade 2 listed and the only structure of its kind to survive in the UK. The current swan pit dates from the 18th century. Prior to that the hospital's swans were kept in ponds. In the Middle Ages swans were reserved for the table of the king and a handful of privileged nobles and clerics. Two creeks extended into the hospital precinct from the south bank of the River Wensum, at least one of them having been navigable so that small boats were able to travel within yards of the buildings to unload food, fuel and building supplies. One of the creeks fed fish ponds and both attracted many swans, which in Stuart times continued to be protected.The hospital acquired the right to herd swans soon after it was founded and they had the right to mark their swans with a distinctive sign that was lightly cut into the birds' beaks. Every year in August a so-called swan-upping took place during which ownership of all of the cygnets was established. The cygnets were then confined and fattened on grain. The Great Hospital's cygnets were kept in a purpose-built swan pit constructed in 1793 by William Ivory, a son of Thomas Ivory who with his family lived in St Helen's House in the hospital grounds, and assisted his father as an architect. He died on 11 December 1837, aged 90, at the King Edward VI almshouses in Saffron Walden. The swan pit was in use until WW2, when it was forced to close due to the grain shortage. By this time the hospital had been supplying oven-ready swans for the tables of the rich all over the country, dispatching the birds by rail contained in wicker baskets. The pit is adjoined in the north by a stone sided channel with two 19th century sluice gates linking it with the River Wensum. The sluices ensure that the pit is filled at high tide, and unable to empty at low tide. It is surrounded by a pleasant green space occupied in one corner by a summer house. These days swans are no longer being kept here, but an implement known as a goose quarterer can be seen on display in the refectory. On feast days it was presumably also used for preparing swans for the table.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0