WE look back at the time when swan lake came to Clayton-le-Moors when a bird decided to walk around Sparth Farm housing estate in 1979.

The four-feet tall bird, which was living on Lodgeside, a nearby fenced-in stretch of water, made progress round the avenues and called in on several homes in tours of their gardens.

But the bird’s swansong came when it was returned home by an RSPCA inspector.

Doris Mason of Lynwood Avenue, said: “I opened the curtain and there it was right in the middle of the road. It came as quite a surprise, because they look so big close-up.”

The white bird was shepherded back to the lodge by Lancashire Telegraph cameraman Frank Walsh, Gwen Bradshaw of Lodgeside, and her two grand children Mark and Jane Aspinall of Lynwood Avenue. The swans were a regular feature of the landscape.