Following a week of public voting, with many hundreds of suggestions, The Bishop’s Palace in Wells has announced the results of the names for the new cygnets, which hatched at the beginning of May.
The Palace’s 24 hour Swan Cam and social media channels have been more popular than ever with the public during lockdown, and reached over 130,000 people in the week that the cygnets first appeared.
Suggestions from the public for the seven cygnets have ranged from comedy (Boris Swanson) to serious (many suggestions for NHS staff and keyworkers) and more than a few entered Corona as a name. The number seven also tickled the imagination of many people with ideas of the seven colours of the rainbow, the seven days of the week, the seven continents and even the seven dwarfs!
Followers of the Palace’s digital reader will know that one cygnet had an extraordinary journey this week; being swept down the sluice gate and along the stream, being found by a member of the public whilst being attacked by a magpie, spending a night at the vet’s, being returned to the moat and, unfortunately, having to be removed from the moat after being rejected by his parents. The cygnet was named Gulliver by the public for his wild travels, and is now being taken care of by the same swan sanctuary that his parents came from.
So that leaves 6 cygnets on the moat and the names selected are:
- Captain Tom – one of the most popular suggestions, in recognition of the amazing achievements of this 100 year old fundraiser.
- Rainbow – so many people wanted the colours of the rainbow to thank the NHS and other keyworkers that this name was chosen
- Evelina – for the staff and children of the Evelina Children’s Hospital
- Hope – because it’s what the world needs right now
- Candessa
- Samuel
The final two were personal suggestions in memory of someone special who had passed away and had loved the swans.
Locals to Wells can find the swans and their beautiful cygnets showing off along the Moat most days and the Palace would like to remind the public that although many people bring bread to feed them, they do prefer to be fed frozen peas, lettuce, oats, or vegetable trimmings as it’s better for their health.
Swan Cam will remain live for a few more weeks, just head to the home page of the Palace website to view it.
