Silver Swan at Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle restored

The 250-year-old swan at The Bowes Museum was turned on in front of guests following a fundraising campaign, with conservation work continuing in the New Year.

The honours of winding it up went to Lorraine Groves, of Liverpool, who donated the largest amount to an Artfund fundraiser. 

Lorraine said: “I’ve got a big birthday coming up next year and I wanted to do something special to kick the year off.

"I was lucky enough to see the fundraiser on the Artfund website and I remembered years ago seeing a video of the swan in action in all her glory and it just really resonated with me.

" So when I saw the fundraiser I thought that would be a lovely thing to be involved in, so that’s really what spurred me on. 

"There were lots of other connections too, my grandad was a clock and watchmaker so I’ve got that memory of him as a child making and repairing clocks and watches and the fact this is an automata.

"And it’s got all those working parts is really fascinating and obviously art and culture and The Bowes Museum is really important to the local people and this is an internationally, globally important piece of art, so all of those reasons.”

Hannah Fox, museum executive director, said: “Conservation work on the wonderful Silver Swan has been underway for the last four months. Thanks to the generous support of visitors and funders, this has progressed well, and we intend to have daily performances again starting in February 2024.

“On Thursday night, we invited supporters and neighbours for a Christmas treat when they had a sneak peek to see it perform as never before. Partway through its conservation journey, this provided a one-off opportunity to see inside its working mechanism before the team replace the neck rings and glass rods.”

The restoration has been funded in part by a grant of £146,324 from the National Heritage Lottery Fund and supporters of the museum helped to raise a further £20,000 to help with the cost.