A Blast from the Past
Pioneers of the Sport in the UK
At the last Lancashire Social Circle function I was loaned a hard back book, that one of our guests thought might make an article for the fancy press, on the early history of the sport. The book in question was 12 volumes, of volume 1 to 12 dating from May 1892 to April 1893. Published monthly at the cost of two shillings for six months, post free. The journal's were edited by Alf Darbyshire for the first number of editions before W M Bancroft took over. It was called "The Pigeon Racers' Journal" with each months front cover highlighted a prominent fancier from various parts of the country. The first issue offers no apology for being the only journal devoted to Homing Pigeons. It would seem from a number of articles, some relating back 80 years, stated to be a fancier of Homing Pigeons one was essentially a loafer. Moving on from its juvenile days now aspires to have fallen on better days with Mill Owners, Peers of the Realm, Judges and Clergymen all taking an interest in training and breeding of Homing Pigeons.
Moving on through the first few issues it seems racing has sprung up in many parts of the country and fanciers had to contend with a number of difficulties. The first being the cost of acquiring "good birds" as over the last 15 years the speed and homing had improved tremendously. Secondly was the difficulty of the nearest Telegraph Office, and the better off fanciers would engage young boy runners or have a horse and trap in readiness for the race. With the pigeons not carrying a ring, the procedure was to stamp a flight feather with this information being wired to the race organiser. The time this was sent was the time the pigeon was recorded. Now as you can see this resulted in some unfortunate exchanges, with one club in Wigan in 1875 when it was in its infancy experienced one such incident. This came about when one fancier got a pigeon early morning and had a friend who worked at the Telegraph Office and recorded his at 5 00am while another fancier could not record his entry as his Telegraph Office didn't open until 7 00am. There was a number of complaints made to secretaries of telegrams giving wrong times and wrong information. The Secretary of the General Post Office very kindly came to assistance by recommending to publish a dial assisting the fancier in checking the code places on the message by the clerk. Reading the dial with fanciers who had difficulty was simple. The outside of the dial are capital letters of the alphabet (leaving out the J) are used for the hours. With the minutes having the addition of four other letters R S W X, so at a glance a fancier hands a message at five minutes past twelve, the clerk should read M.A. (as shown on the dial) If the time was eight minutes past twelve the code would read M.A. W.
In these early years the pigeons had no ring to identify them and fanciers were encouraged to give there birds a name, and the National Register of Famous Birds was formed, with the rules being. 1, All birds should be given a distinctive name by which they can be traced hereafter. 2, Breeders name and pedigree of sire and dam should be given if possible. 3, Performances with date club and number of birds competing. 4, A fee of two Shillings for each three birds registered.
In June 1892 the homing fancy had made such strides, time had arrived for flying fanciers to consider forming a "Parent Association" for the control of the sport. with this step having been taken by every other sport. This would follow the lines of the "American League of Homing Fanciers". There are a number of matters which should be undertaken by the Association. 1, the issuing of a standard ring, registered in the books of the Association, with change of ownership added from time to time. 2, The Measuring of the distances of all clubs on maps specially prepared for the purpose Ordnance. 3, All races to be flown under the supervision of the "Parent Association". 4, In connection with this branch of work a list of liberation, approved by the Association would become necessary. ( as readers can see this was the formation of the RPRA) This would involve an immense amount of labour, but there are many in the sport who have plenty of leisure time and an inexhaustible amount of energy, and these are the men we must look for in the first instance. Also in the June Issue of 1892, it was the opinion of many the system of marking flight feathers was not sufficiently safe. It was understood that Liverpool Homing Society intend trying a new system of marking their race birds with a "Rosoor" rings, made from thin rubber folded and sealed up. Inside are the race numbers which can only be got at by cutting the ring. Along with the ring is a small envelope also sealed with a duplicate number of the one inside the ring and a separate reference number on the outside. It then goes on to describe the ringer (that I have to admit was difficult reading)
We are now into the issue of October 1892 where the topic of conversation in North London was the suggests putting forward an invitation to all clubs with a dozen members or more should be invited to a meeting to form a Federation with the advantages of cheaper transport and better competition. A club with 12 members would send one delegate, with those of 24 members to send 2 and so on. The thinking behind this was in the past season there had been Inter-Club races. A further report from E Challinor the President of Leek HS was also trying to form a Federation in his area and is calling for a meeting to be held with the following clubs Crewe, Northwich, Leek, Macclesfield, Congleton, Potteries and Knutsford. (you can see from this move the sport is moving on to the one we all reconised today) In every edition there is what is described "Scraps" which are snippets of news from various parts of the country and more importantly from Belgium one such Scrap is a two page article on Mr Northrop Barker which might make another article in itself should readers be interested. There is also a report of the stock kept by J W Logan.
Each month the front cover highlighted a prominent fancier from various parts of the country giving a background into their interests with pigeons and the formation of the first racing pigeon clubs. At this point it might be of interest to cover a few of these in brief details starting with. Mr Oliver of Bexhill adorns the first page of the first edition of May 1892. From childhood was passionately fond of birds; but owing to being closely engaged in business could not pursue his interest. In 1869 he retired and wished to have pigeons that would fly long distances. In 1871 he imported pigeons from Belgium, only to find in 1872 their young were unsatisfactorily and were disposed of. Not to be put off he bought some racers from a Mr J B Kenrick who had put them together during the residence in Belgium. These proved to be the goods and along with a friend Albert Cruttenden agreed to send a young pigeon each to Bedford 100 miles straight. Both birds returned and they thought if a young bird could fly 100 miles then as a yearling they should be able to fly 200 miles. These test continued and with interest from other fanciers a club was formed in 1874 The Brighton & County of Sussex with Albert Cruttenden as secretary.
Mr Cottell of Forest Hill the success of this fancier, who is one of the oldest flying fanciers in England dates bake to 1835when he got into trouble for tossing his father's valuable Dragon pigeons. In 1842 he experimented crossing Dragons with Blue Rocks. A little later he crossed Blue Dragons (the smaller type) to the long faced Bristol birds which flew a distance of up to 80 miles (a good performance in those days) The local Gun Club had pigeons imported over from Belgium twice each week and Mr Cottell attended their arrival, and for a few shillings would select birds he thought suitable for his purpose. He kept them in a large loft over his stable, and let them pair as they pleased. The following spring the young were trained with the bad ones lost and the good ones retained. By the early 1880's he was a member of the United Counties FC inaugurated by Mr J W Logan, winning with small entries of 4 or 5 birds winning multiple prizes. He was also a member of the London Columbarium being a winner from Rennes 241 miles and 2nd from 345 miles.
Herbert Stanhope of Stroud was first introduced to pigeons as a 15 year old in 1859 and was fascinated how pigeons could find their way home from short distances, when at the time he was living in Bradford, Yorkshire. On his move to Stroud in 1873 commenced getting some homers. His early attempts at racing were not very successful. He purchased in the Autumn of 1875 after reading the Brussels Journal the very best stock pigeons of Monsieur Servais, of Ixelles near Brussels. He kept 10 pairs of old birds and about a dozen youngsters that he considered enough for him to look after.
The December issue has notes from Scotland, where pigeon flying had not taken off as it had in England, although there were many keen fanciers, and the sport is beginning to take hold. As far as could be ascertained, the honour of having the first flying club in Scotland belongs to the St Mungo's Homing Pigeon Society, Glasgow, which was started in 1879. But it was not until 1881 that it got into fully working order. When they first commenced they got to work fairly quickly and got the birds to fly a distance of 20 miles. By 1883 with imported pigeons from England the club was holding races for old birds from Preston 160 miles and Annan with youngsters 72 miles.
With the turn on the New Year. the January addition of 1893 had a report of the use of Homing Pigeons as newspaper messengers. The idea of utilising the services of pigeons as a copy carrier for newspapers was by no means a modern one. For before the days when railways and telegraphs were undreamt of, the pigeon, or old English Carrier as it was then termed, was used with more than one newspaper office for the quick transmission of news. Before electricity was brought into operation, newspaper offices always had a large staff of pigeons entirely for business purposes. They were kept continually at work, and brought home, throughout the season. Pigeons were used to great advantage for example at football matches, when a reporter would release a pigeon at half time with the score, then release another with the final result as soon as the match had ended in order to make the final edition of the paper.
They say there is nothing new, it's just reinvented. This being the case reported by an un-named fancier on his first visit to Belgium in August of 1892 when on a loft visit Mons Offerman's' he noted the practice of giving the whole seasons results on one Diploma. With the race point printed in one column and the prizes won opposite. This being economical to the club with so many less diplomas, and convenient to the member not having a string of prize cards. As I said nothing new the Lancashire Social Circle has been doing this for years.
Also in the January issue are Irish Notes, where it is reported the two Dublin clubs have done well, with the Irish Homing Pigeon Society flying old birds from Crookhaven making a velocity of 850 on a bad day. There was talk of amalgamating both clubs into one as neither of them are very strong and it would make one good club. As far a distance and velocities go the Belfast clubs are far ahead. From the two clubs both have flown Cork a distance of 215 miles, with the Belfast HPS making the best velocity of over 1100 ypm.
Brian Dearn Tel. 01254 772515.
