I've visited Swanton a few times, but only recently found out there are Royal Swans in the small park near Merchant's Row. The swans names are Betty and Sam and they were gifted to the village of Swanton in 1961 by Queen Elizabeth II. They are named after Uncle Sam and Queen Elizabeth. The original Sam and Betty passed away around 2016 so another set of swans, given the same names, were placed in the park. The swans are kept in an iron fence enclosure with a small pond and a cute red building that resembles a house. They are the main attraction of Village Green Park and there is a ton of interesting information about them here in this article.
I picked up my daughter from school and we headed toward Vermont. We parked our car on Merchant's Row and walked through the park, admiring the nature and quaint buildings that surrounded the small park. We walked toward the swan area and saw the swans resting near the fence. We were able to get an up-close look at them. One was very curious to see us, while the other continued napping. I was happy to see the swans before they leave the park in October for the winter season. Then we walked over and admired the beautiful fountain in the park. If you look closely, you can see the fountain has ornamental swans engraved around the bottom of it. We admired some other elements of the park, then headed back to Merchant's Row to visit our favorite kid's thift shop. Check out the photos below from our walk.
Swan engravings on the fountain
Walking back to the thrift shop
