THE WORLD FAMOUS
LOUELLA LOFTS
PART 1
by Keith Mott
I think every pigeon fancier has, at some time, enjoyed a good day out at the Louella Pigeon World in Leicester! I’ve had several through the years and had some very interesting phone conversations with the late Louis Massarella, owner of this wonderful pigeon stud. Louis passed away several years ago and the sport of pigeon racing lost one its great fanciers and characters. He gave a lot to our sport through the years and made quality pigeons affordable to the working man. I first visited the Massarella stud in 1977, when I was scribing for the Pigeon Racing ‘Gazette’ and was invited up to Leicester with an article in mind. The Massarella family were so helpful that the finished write up was over six pages long and ran over two months. The articles are nearly 38 years old now and for bit of interest, I’m going to run them again over the next two weeks!
I made my first 100 mile trip up the M1 to Leicester in mid-june 1977 with three good friends and we arrived at Louis Massarella's farm at 12.30hrs, to be welcomed by the newly appointed loft manager, Jack Paley. I had spoken to a Mr Paley many times on the phone when arranging this visit but I didn't know until I met him that he was the Jack Paley of 'Woodsider' fame.
He ushered us into the new showroom where fanciers come on open days and purchase first class stock at very reasonable prices. This light and airy place was very nicely set out with show pens and photos of the many champions at the stud, around the walls. It was opened in that November and open weekends took place in the winter, when about 250 old birds were for sale every open weekend. During the summer, open days took place on Sundays (as fanciers are racing on Saturdays) and about 100 young birds were put up for sale on these days. There was a large car park surrounded with green fields and coach parties were welcomed. After we had inspected the showroom, Jack took us to his cottage for a meal which his wife, Shirley, had prepared for us, after which we sat and talked about the sport in general.
At that time the Louella Stud had just purchased a dark chequer cock, which Jack described as the `T.V. Star', that being the world record-priced pigeon, champion `Bliksem.' He won 32 top prizes in National, Club and Federation, including 1st open International St. Vincent (560 miles), 5th open Brives National (3,038 birds), 3rd open St. Vincent National (2,770 birds), 11th open St. Vincent (2,546 birds), 55th open Brives National (2,845 birds), 10th open Cahors National (4,135 birds), 1st Federation St. Vincent, 2nd Section St. Vincent, 4th Federation Brives, 6th Section St. Vincent, 4th Federation St. Vincent, 4th Section Cahors, 6th Federation Cahors, 53rd Chateauroux, 11th Poitiers and was purchased by the Louella stud from Emiel Denys of Zulte, Belgium for the record sum of £10,500.
Jack Paley looked after the continental strains and Louis Massarella's son, John, ran the British families. Stocks of most corns and seeds were kept and they made up their own mixtures to what they thought the birds needed. Only first class corn was fed and Jack said it was better than the corn he used to give champion 'Woodsider.' The pigeons for sale were housed in 16 sections behind the showroom and were split into their different strains etc. The champions and their sons and daughters were bred in what Louis Massarella called the racing loft, which was by the side of the stock sections and, in fact, this was the old Massarella loft which Louis used to race to. John lived 12 miles away and a lot of breeding went on at his home. Louis also had five stud stallions at the Kirby Park farm, two of which were direct sons of Derby winners, and these stallions served about 300 mares between mid-April and mid-August.
Louis started up in the sport at the age of nine with sub-standard birds obtained from everywhere, including the local fish market. The first good birds were obtained from Louis good friend, George Jarmy of Norwich, an ace flyer of the 1920s. When he was 17 years old he had to give up pigeons to join the family's Ice Cream business, although the young Louis wasn't keen on the trade. At 21 he was manager of the family farms at Hugglescote and he visited a lot of fanciers in this area, although it was many years before he started up again. Louis finally began again at the age of 32, with birds purchased from Reg Hamblin of Leicester, and they included some of his best birds, such as `Newmarket King' his six-times Lerwick cock and sons and daughters of 'Newmarket Queen,' the King's Cup winner. Later, Louis obtained `Newmarket Queen' but previous to this Mr Hamblin bred the dam of champion 'Twilight' from this hen. He purchased a pair of Hansenne x Jurion blue pieds from Mr Brookes of Bromsgrove and the cock NURP 42 K 3532 was the winner of eleven times 1st and three times 1st Federation. This pair bred `Champion Snowball' for the Massarella loft and he was twenty times a prize winner in twenty-two races including twice 1st South Section, 2nd Open G.N.R. Thurso Combine and the Spitfire Trophy winner 1953. He was always on the look out for good pigeons and many more champions were introduced, including champion 'Twilight' at the cost of £625 in 1960. John Massarella rated `Twilight' as the greatest Pau King George V Cup winner ever. Louis didn't only purchase the great 'Twilight' for her outstanding performances, but also because she was a granddaughter of his first King's Cup purchase, 'Newmarket Queen,' and would strengthen his original Hamblin family.
In 1961 the great `Solway King' was purchased from Irving & Johnstone and John Massarella rated him as the all time great of Louella Lofts at that time, and I second that! Not only was he a champion racer, winning 1st Section, 1st Open S.N.F.C. Rennes, 11th Section, 31st Open S.N.F.C. Rennes, 17th Section, 96th Open S.N.F.C. Rennes, but he was a champion breeder and it's said his best mating was with the great `Griselda.' Champion 'Solway King' died on 2nd January 1977 at the age of 22 years old and was filling his eggs up to the age of 18 years old. `Townfoot Goodboy III' and 'Lancashire Rose' were purchased in 1964 and 'High Noon' in 1965. Champion 'Lancashire Rose' was bred by Hugh Sutton and raced by J. O. Warren & Son, and was the record long distance Pau National King's Cup winner, flying 722 miles. The great Rene Boizard hen, 'Louvre II', was introduced in 1967 and she was the winner of 1st, 4th, 5th & 9th open Barcelona (590 miles) National four consecutive years. 'Ramses' the champion Dordin cock was imported from France and 'Mausi' from West Germany in 1968. Louella Lofts saw the great champion `Stranraer Simon' introduced in 1969 and one of the reasons for purchasing this 1st open S.N.F.C. Rennes winner was because his pedigree goes back on four lines to one of the Massarella early purchases, `Galabank Producer.'
Louis Massarella finished his very full and highly successful racing career in 1964 and has been selling progeny off his champions since. He was an `ace' from all distances, North and South, having timed three birds in from the Shetlands in 18 seconds and three birds from Pau to win the Orchardson Trophy for best average in the National. He won 120 times in the first six in four consecutive seasons. His last year of racing in 1964, was an outstanding year on the road winning 28 positions out of a possible 30 in the South Section of the Derbyshire North Road Federation in three consecutive weeks, in the N.R.C.C. young bird race winning 19 open positions in the first 63, taking 7th, 14th, 16th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 29th, 30th, 34th, 38th, 48th, 50th, 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 59th, 62nd, 63rd flying in the great North Road Berwick Combine, winning 5th, 11th, 16th, 19th, 22nd open and finishing the season winning 1st Leicestershire Federation Lerwick and 2nd Derbyshire Fed Lerwick. Great stuff!
The Louella Lofts gave a tremendous amount of pigeons to charity sales every year and that year Louis donated a Vauxhall Chevette G.L.S. Estate car and 19 other prizes for a Grand Draw in aid of the 1977 Blackpool Olympiad. The nineteen other prizes were direct children from his Louella champions, 'Bliksem,' 'Motta,' ‘Argenton’, 'Workman,' etc, and in terms of cash the donation totals approx £5,000. The Chevette was won by Mr Fred Griffin of Chippenham, Wilts, and Louis Massarella presented the car to him at one of the Louella stud open days. The stud had started a new thing that year to help federations and clubs raise money for transporter funds etc., by giving them six top class young birds for a special reduced price and the federation or club could auction them off. About ten clubs had gone into it that season with great success and in one batch a very inbred young bird to `Motta' was sent out and raised £78, which was big money at that time.
Champion `Townfoot Good Boy 111’ died on 22nd June, in fact two days after my visit, at 17 years old. This great old Mealy Cock was bred and raced by David Angus of Symington and he won 1st Open S.N.F.C. Rennes (524 miles) in 1962. He was bred down from Bricoux bloodlines and was introduced into the Louella stud in 1964 at the cost of £600.
This week we have had the late great Louis Massarella the 'ace' racer and next week we have a report on my inspection of the Louella stud and the champions at the Leicester establishment in 1977. I also interviewed John Massarella, so read about this great fancier’s ideas and views next week.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT (www.keithmott.com)
