About 1015 on the Wednesday morning there was a loud clatter at the west end of the north aisle roof, the roof alarm did not go off. I went into the ringing room and looked out of the window, to find a swan sitting on the roof. Having climbed out onto the south aisle roof and crossed over the chancel roof, I arrived near the swan. Despite shouting, hissing and waving of arms, there was no reaction from the swan. No hissing, flapping of wings or any attempt to move.

I then phoned the RSPCA and explained the situation, the officer asked me to keep an eye on the swan and if it flew off, to inform them. I was told an RSPCA officer would attend the incident sometime during the day.

Alison, the inspector arrived about 2pm and I took her up to look at the swan from the ringing room. By this time, the swan had started to walk eastward down the roof and in the meantime it had started raining, which meant accessing the roof was rather dangerous. Alison then contacted the fire service.

The fire tender arrived about 3pm, after a short discussion it was decided they would use their rescue ladder to access the roof. Two of the crew were ‘Baby Fireman’, yes they did look that young. One had just finished her training and the other lad was a probationer. When the ladder was erected the young lass took control and the young lad took control when it was taken down at the end of the task.

The crew chief accessed the roof and checked everything was safe and then called the other two up. They all placed the swan in the holding bag with no fuss whatsoever. The young lad carried the swan down, filmed and photographed for his NVQ qualification. A photo shoot was carried out with Alison, who then placed the swan in her van.

Alison took the swan back to the office and released it after a check-up. The RSPCA contacted me on the Friday about the press release they wished to issue. It was emailed to me and I replied it was OK to issue it to the media. It was issued to the media over the weekend and appeared in various newspapers, websites, national and local TV news and the local digital text pages on the BBC (1645) over the next few days.

Chris Newman

The BBC article can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-64296655