Confused Congletonians took to social media to defend the town’s Beartown nickname, after fake photos of giant inflatable swans at the town hall were posted online.
The debate “got out of hand” among residents after graphic artist John Mearman suggested there could be a strong case to rebrand Congleton with the new moniker, Swantown.
But speaking to the “Chronicle”, Mr Mearman, who was behind the graphics and marketing of Microsoft’s Windows and Xbox launches before his retirement, said the doctored photos were posted to promote his new disco for grown-ups.
He said: “It’s gone a little bit silly, hasn’t it? We’d organised a daytime disco at the town hall on 14th December aimed at people aged 50 plus, who like to party, but don’t want to be getting home at 1am.”
He explained that the idea was first started by Johnny Owen of Day Fever Events, who is the husband of “Line of Duty” star Vicky McClure, and had since run his 3pm until 8pm discos all over the country.
After two sold-out events at Congleton Town Hall, Mr Mearman, who once ran the popular Sounds Around club nights, decided to run his own day-disco to raise money for the local Ukrainian network.
He said: “A lot of adult discos usually launch a giant inflatable flamingo into the crowd, but we wanted something different, so we decided to go with a swan.”¬
Using the pseudonym “spindoctorsdjs”, Mr Mearman uploaded a doctored photo of Santa scaling the roof of the town hall with the extra large inflatable.
He said: “It got completely out of hand. I did that first picture and people started saying the council was wasting money, even though I was very careful not to implicate the council in anything I wrote.
“After that, I thought ‘let’s take it a stage further’ and posted another picture with the bears in the town hall entrance replaced with swans. People started talking about it and I fuelled it from there.”
One social media user commented on the photo: “Is this a joke?”
While another simply wrote: “Not suitable.”
But one eagle-eyed resident could not be gulled, saying: “(Look at the) time on the clock and it’s daylight. Definitely not winter.”
An altered image he later shared of a poster in the window of the town hall, amassed more than 100 comments.
The poster stated: “Bears have been a feature of Congleton for far too long and we feel it is time for change. Our committee have decided that swans would be more appropriate to symbolise the flowing, prosperous elegance of Congleton.
“We already have landmarks such as Swan Street and The Lion and Swan and Swan Bank, whereas there are no streets or roads named after a bear, so the transition to Swantown from Beartown will be totally seamless.
“We are steadily replacing the bears of Congleton with large inflatable swans as these are low cost, easy to transport and cheap to replace. Please respect these swans!”
While some residents were quick to point out the photos were a hoax, others were angered by the idea.
One user wrote: “They say they are skint but waste money on this bonkers idea. Hopefully this will be the swan song that stops muppets wasting money on such lunacy! They say it’s a publicity stunt, or is it?”
Referring to the origin of the Beartown nickname, which came about after officials used the town’s coffers to buy a new bear instead of a bible, another user wrote: “Absolutely outrageous. Does the committee that voted for this not look back in history to Congleton in the 1600s?”
Mr Mearman said: “It’s funny because people believe what they want to believe. I have published that it’s just promotion for the disco, but some people choose to ignore that and carry on fuelling the debate.”
When asked if he would be in favour of changing the town’s nickname to move away from its bear-baiting history, he said: “I strongly dislike the political correctness of rewriting history. We have a history, we have to acknowledge it; I don’t think we should ignore it. It’s Beartown for me… but why not swans?”
The “Chronicle” asked local historian Lyndon Murgatroyd if he knew of a historical connection to swans in the town.
He said: “The Lion and Swan was originally two pubs: The Lion and The Swan. It eventually became The Black Lion and Swan in the 1600s and then it was The Swan and Lion, until it was changed to what it is today.
“Swan Bank was likely named after the pub which would have been there long before the street was named, but I don’t know why the original Swan pub was named that way.”
(Photos: John Mearman).
