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00:00The Pigeon, not just a bird, but a force of nature.
00:27How many other birds can fly like they do, the distance they do and the time they do? None.
00:34A creature that for centuries has been man's helpmate and companion.
00:39They're quite quirky, because they do have sort of an individual personality.
00:44They're just a friendly, happy, curious little bird.
00:47Come on, my little darling.
00:50People who keep pigeons are known as fanciers.
00:53I've never known anything like saying to see a pigeon coming over the sky.
00:58Some breed pigeons to race them.
01:00It's the same preparation, you know, with racing pigeons as it is for athletes and football players.
01:06Others breed them to be, well, fancy.
01:10What we look for is a lovely little apple-shaped body like that.
01:14It's a love that borders on obsession.
01:18I've heard grown men who keep pigeons and they'll cool, cool, cool for bloody hours.
01:25But for some, the pigeon has been public enemy number one.
01:28Neighbors regarded pigeons as nuisances often.
01:31They made a lot of noise, they created a lot of mess.
01:34Yet when it counts, this bird has always come through for us.
01:38It was the humble pigeon that actively brought help to save your life.
01:43So settle back in your deck chairs and look up to the skies.
01:47It's time to fly back through the decades with man's best feathered friend.
01:52Of all the ways to engage with pigeons, racing is by far the most popular.
02:11From the 1850s to the 1970s, there were men that could hardly think of anything else.
02:17It was a very serious business because everybody wanted to win.
02:24You know, you're convinced that you're going to win.
02:26It was a hobby, some would say a life's work,
02:31steeped in rules and rituals, even before the first bird was released.
02:37You spend a week waiting for Friday to come.
02:40Friday comes and you've got a selection of birds that you fancy for that weekend.
02:45Put them in a basket, take them to your club, where everyone else will be.
02:51Put lots of baskets of pigeons lined up.
02:58The whole attraction of pigeon racing isn't just the race itself.
03:03It's a process in many ways.
03:05There's the rituals of what time you feed the birds,
03:08how you train them, how you release them.
03:10It's part of your everyday existence.
03:12And that means it's not a sport which is just a short, sharp excitement,
03:16because even the race itself, in terms of long-distance racing,
03:19is actually quite a drawn-out process.
03:21So let's see how a typical race in the 70s would play out.
03:27The pre-race formalities begin with each pigeon being given a numbered ring.
03:32And that would be wrote down on our race sheet.
03:3755-49.
03:40And put into an envelope, sealed,
03:43and it would be put into the secretary's case.
03:47Once registered, the birds are loaded onto transporters.
03:52Cocks and hens travel separately,
03:54so there's no fighting or funny business to distract them on the way.
03:58The pigeons are now driven away from their home turf
04:02to an unfamiliar release point.
04:05It may be tens or hundreds of miles away.
04:09Now their owners synchronise their racing clocks.
04:12Everyone would get together,
04:18and you would set the clocks together exactly to the second,
04:23and if anyone...
04:24Because you'd hear a noise that would go...
04:26At the first stretch, it will be 7.45, precisely.
04:33One, two, three.
04:37And they should all read the exact same time,
04:40so that there's no fluctuation or people don't have an advantage.
04:47The clocks get a last check.
04:51Then it's off to the pub.
04:58To talk about pigeons.
05:01A lot of it is just regaling stories
05:04about previous races or birds that they've had in the past
05:07that have done weird things
05:09or that have been particularly good.
05:11You're all missing one thing,
05:13which is the most important of a lot,
05:15and that is character.
05:18If the pigeon hasn't got the temperament
05:20and the character,
05:21it'll never win anything.
05:23We're all cracking jokes,
05:25but deep down inside,
05:28you're hoping that you're going to knock hell out of them.
05:30You're going to beat them.
05:32We'll just better pour into old H. Blanket
05:35and win the race tomorrow.
05:40At first light the next day,
05:43the actual race begins.
05:45There's a chance we'll drink a water
05:47and kill it at the sea.
05:49And if you've never seen one before,
05:51you're in for a treat.
05:52Yes, they're all coming to the trough now.
05:58Get ready, Dave.
06:00Roy Lambert!
06:02He's got it!
06:09Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
06:12Hey!
06:13All the fronts of the baskets drop.
06:15All hell breaks loose.
06:16Pigeons go everywhere.
06:17Feathers, sawdust fly everywhere.
06:19And when they release the pigeons,
06:32the only thing on that bird's mind
06:34is to get home as quick as possible
06:37to its lot.
06:43They circle up in a big batch,
06:46getting wider and wider,
06:47and then eventually when they've figured out
06:49where they need to go,
06:50then they've gone.
06:55The homing pigeon seems to have
06:56an extraordinary global sat-nav in its head.
07:00So how exactly does that work?
07:04Whenever I'm asked,
07:06I always give a fairly kind of,
07:07a fairly kind of non-specific series of answers,
07:12because I'm still not convinced
07:14that anyone really knows how they do it.
07:20Homing pigeons have been recorded
07:22flying 600 miles in 15 hours,
07:25the equivalent of driving at 40 miles an hour
07:27from London to Berlin without a map.
07:30Back at the pigeons' coops or lofts,
07:39the men's job is to sit still.
07:43Now, you'd get up really early in the morning
07:46and you'd sit in a deck chair or a chair in the garden
07:50and you would wait.
07:53As the expected arrival time gets nearer,
07:57excitement mounts.
07:58It would all be like deadly hush.
08:01There'd be no kites flying,
08:02there'd be no noise.
08:04You'd have to be in the garden and quiet
08:06while the pigeon men were all waiting for the birds to come in.
08:09It was very therapeutic,
08:13just sitting there looking up at the sky.
08:16It's something, you know,
08:18I haven't done since I was a child
08:19and I was looking at clouds.
08:22It was generally my mum who'd shout at us.
08:24It wasn't the pigeon guys,
08:26because she'd probably get some earache off them.
08:28You know, them bloody kids are making a noise in the garden
08:31and my pigeons are coming in, you know.
08:33So it was just kind of a respect
08:35for the guys who had the pigeons, you know,
08:37who don't make a noise in the garden.
08:39And then the pigeon is almost there,
09:07it's almost in the garden.
09:08And then they're there really trying,
09:10but not trying to be too desperate,
09:12because they don't want to scare the pigeon.
09:15Precious moments can be lost,
09:17chasing an athlete round the garden.
09:19I'm leaving, get that one.
09:21Come on.
09:22I had one particular pigeon.
09:24It would sit on the house roof and it would sit there for an hour.
09:29Didn't matter what I did, it wouldn't come in.
09:33And then the pigeon will mentally go in the loft and they'll clock it.
09:42Ah, and then there's a breath of fresh air.
09:44For the pigeons, the race is over.
09:46For the men, it's back down the clubhouse or the pub for the final part of the process.
09:53Five.
09:55The opening of the clocks.
09:57Three strikes once on your printers.
09:59Go.
09:59The secretary would take the things all out of his case and that's when the work started to work out who had won.
10:10Racers learn the art of pigeon maths.
10:14Distance divided by time equals velocity.
10:16There's only one pigeon in, as I can see.
10:20It's in at 15 hours, 22 minutes.
10:24Because the winner isn't the pigeon that gets home first,
10:28but the one that attains the fastest average speed between the release point and its loft.
10:37So pigeon racing is an absorbing passion.
10:41And with gambling on pigeon racing illegal in Britain, it's all done in the spirit of competition.
10:51It's a sport that gets into your blood, you know, and you just can't get it out.
10:55Once you get interested in them, they become part of you.
11:03And that is really all you think about.
11:11Training pigeons, breeding champions, building the lofts and maintaining them, preparing for race day,
11:24finding the best bird seed, passing on what you know or keeping mum.
11:32For many people, pigeons were an integral part of the fabric of life.
11:36And in some families, they helped stitch the generations together.
11:41There are people in their autobiographies who talk about how pigeon racing brought them closer to their father.
11:46It was a shared activity.
11:48They shared in feeding the birds.
11:50They shared in clearing out the hutches.
11:58So we grew up around pigeons.
12:00Jonathan Lee comes from a family steeped in all things pigeon.
12:07My mum's dad kept pigeons.
12:10His dad kept pigeons.
12:12My nan's dad kept pigeons.
12:15So as my grandad would say, he was born with a pigeon in his hand.
12:18They met through pigeons.
12:21So arguably I might not be here if it wasn't for pigeons.
12:23I first became interested in pigeons when I was very young because my father has kept them since the age of 13.
12:34And he's now 77 and still keeps them.
12:39As a teenager, we never used to have a holiday that lasted seven days.
12:43It only lasted from Monday to Friday because on the Saturday and Sunday, the pigeons would be coming home.
12:50We used to always come back at Friday lunchtime because Dad had to go and enter his pigeons at the pigeon race on Friday evening.
13:02And now I'd like you to meet Gerald Francis, who I believe you were judging, Gerald, yesterday, weren't you?
13:08I was helping the judge.
13:09How old are you?
13:10Twelve.
13:10Well, how did you become an assistant judge at that very young age?
13:14Well, some of Mr. Richard's friends were judged.
13:17Little Jerry Francis.
13:18Years before he became a champion footballer, he was a lad with a head full of pigeon law.
13:26I'd been the youngest ever steward to judge at the international pigeon show at Olympia.
13:31And so Peter Haig had me on there with President Tito's pigeons and the Queen's loft manager, Len Rush.
13:37Well, congratulations on being a judge at your very tender years.
13:39But before we leave you, who is that bird?
13:41It comes from Czechoslovakia, and I don't know the name of the person whose pigeons it is.
13:48Wouldn't it be Marshall Tito's, would it, by any chance?
13:50Yes, I think it is.
13:50You think it is?
13:51Thank you very much, Gerald.
13:52Blimey good.
13:52Like footballing, pigeon fancying was a way of life in the industrial towns.
13:58The art was handed down from generation to generation.
14:02My life was probably mapped out for me a bit, because my father had racing pigeons and was a professional footballer.
14:09My mother's father was a professional footballer, but all his brothers had racing pigeons as well.
14:16So, on both sides of my family, we had football and we had racing pigeons, so probably my destiny was already written.
14:30Right, now this pigeon is just for the kids, and she was the one the kids picked out, and she won, I think, over £2,000, which brought them the quad bike, and we brought her back and called her just for the kids.
14:43She's been producing winners for me now since 2006.
14:47While Jerry learned about pigeons from his dad, Loz began fancying with his granddad.
14:55The thing about roller pigeons, what we look for is a lovely little apple-shaped body like that.
15:02You see that shape? It's like a lovely little apple shape.
15:06Stop struggling, lad.
15:08My grandfather only lived a few houses up from Oz, and he was a mad pigeon man, and there was, like, a lot of the guys down the street,
15:16there was a lot of flyers down this road, you know, in the early 60s.
15:19It was very big pigeon flying back then, so I kind of brought up with my grandfather, putting rings on for him, going with him to take the young birds on flight.
15:28But, yeah, that's lucky.
15:32Been lucky so far, haven't you, fella?
15:41Come on.
15:42Oh, shut up, my man.
15:46This is a white bush art.
15:48Colin Hill has kept pigeons for 70 years.
15:54This pigeon is what we call Aaron.
15:58He was born the same year as my grandson, so we decided to call him that.
16:06He's nine years old now.
16:07He's bred some good young birds to fly, but because we give it to the grandson, I've only raced it once, and he didn't come home on time.
16:19So we never sent it no more, did we?
16:24But he's a nice pigeon.
16:27Yeah.
16:27And all the young'uns he breeds are white.
16:30From the cradle to the grave, pigeons have been a source of fascination and consolation.
16:47He's not a bad one, is he?
16:50He's got a good eye, hasn't he?
16:52So that's like them eyes are heavier pride and that.
16:56This man was holding part of everyday life in his hands.
17:05In certain parts of the country, pigeons would have been part of the landscape.
17:11Anywhere where there was industry or large amounts of working-class people.
17:16I mean, it wasn't only working-class people that kept pigeons, but it is synonymous with working-class life.
17:22Packs of pigeons in the sky, you would have seen it on a daily basis.
17:28The thickest clouds were seen in the skies around coal mines, because Britain's miners were famous pigeon fanciers.
17:36In many mining communities, there was simply space to keep pigeons.
17:41There was allotments, there were slightly bigger backyards in some areas, and this allowed people to keep pigeons.
17:47And the other thing to remember is that miners were also relatively well-paid when you compare them with other industrial occupations.
17:59And pigeon racing was never a cheap sport.
18:02You needed money for the birds, for feed, for race entry fees.
18:07And maybe that, I think, is the key reason why it was popular amongst miners.
18:11They would be in the dark all day, and then at the weekends, they would come home, and they wanted to look up at the sky,
18:22because it's something that they missed so much in their day-to-day life.
18:26My family has come from a mining background in South Wales.
18:39Grandfather, as soon as he finished school at the age of 14 or something, went into the mines.
18:44It was either pigeons or greyhounds, or both in their case at the time.
18:48Can you tell me what there is about pigeons, which is so fascinating?
18:55Well, the most fascinating thing is when it comes home after the race.
18:58Yeah.
18:59There's nothing more exciting.
19:02I've never known anything more exciting to see a pigeon coming out the skies, yeah,
19:06and everybody's been waiting two and three, or sometimes two and three days, you know.
19:11And I've done a lot of things in my life, but that's the most interesting thing I've ever seen.
19:17Seeing a pigeon coming out?
19:18Pigeons coming home after the race.
19:23Working men took up pigeon racing around the 1850s.
19:28Until then, homing pigeons were used as messengers.
19:33Everyone from Noah to Victorian bankers relied on pigeon posts to carry news of war,
19:39love letters, stock market information, sporting results.
19:44But when the telegraph arrived in the 1840s,
19:47these useful birds were made redundant.
19:51Thousands of unemployed pigeons flooded the market to be picked up cheap by working men.
19:57And the utility bird turned into a sporting bird.
20:04But in 1914, the outbreak of the First World War changed the story for pigeons once more.
20:10They were put back to work as messengers with renewed purpose.
20:16Very important to this side, many lives were saved in the First World War, through the pigeons.
20:26Once the major kind of land battles started taking place, they realised that pigeons for communication were probably the most reliable way of doing it.
20:39So then, literally, hundreds of thousands of pigeons were used at the front.
20:44In the old days of the field telegraph, where you were relying on a cable,
20:54if things were being shelled and those cables broke, you had no contact with the people behind you.
20:59It was the humble pigeon that effectively brought help to save your life.
21:04The wartime pigeon service was operated by men who'd been fanciers on Sivvy Street.
21:09They were dubbed the Pigeoneers.
21:14A Pigeoneer, his sole job was to look after the pigeons and to get them to the front where they were needed.
21:22The Pigeoneer was in charge of a movable loft, holding up to 150 birds.
21:29They were pulled along there not far from the actual fighting.
21:35They had a motorbike lad.
21:37They used to have to put four pigeons in a basket, go to the front line,
21:44all through the shells and the bombing and God knows what.
21:49Now, I would call that a brave man.
21:53Because the front line moved around, the lofts had to be mobile.
21:58Lofts could be basically anything from as simple as a cart with a pigeon loft literally nailed to the back.
22:05They even used converted double-decker buses, even triple-decker pigeon lofts.
22:13Remarkably, though their loft was on the move, the pigeons would still find it.
22:18We know quite a bit about the wartime Pigeoneers, because they had their own annual.
22:24And this is recording the exploits of pigeon fanciers serving in the front lines,
22:34recording either their service, sadly, sometimes their demise or their injuries.
22:40So these were just normal working class people who were serving at the front
22:44that happened to have an affinity with pigeon racing.
22:47And there were many pages and numerous pigeon fanciers listed.
22:57The pigeon's contribution to the Great War became part of its mythology.
23:02Yes! It's one of the king's carrier pigeons!
23:05No, he isn't!
23:06This scene in Black Adder Goes Forth reflects the significance of the pigeon's role.
23:11Lieutenant, revolver, please.
23:13Oh, now, sir, you really shouldn't do this, you know.
23:16Come on, George, with 50,000 men getting killed a week, who's going to miss a pigeon?
23:21A role far more important than feeding a hungry soul.
23:26Not you, obviously, sir.
23:27In any case, it's scarcely a court-martial offence.
23:31Get plucking, Bullrick.
23:34P.S. Due to communication crisis,
23:36the shooting of carrier pigeons is now a court-martial offence.
23:46In the peacetime of the 1920s, pigeon men resumed their passion
23:51and their sport got an unexpected boost.
23:57Before the war, working-class fanciers
24:02had only been able to do short-distance racing.
24:06This was where baskets of pigeons would be carried on foot
24:09to a few fields away before being let go.
24:14But improvements in transport moved the sport up a gear.
24:18Britain was now serviced by a vast railway network
24:29and the trains were roped in to serve pigeon racing.
24:35Steam trains meant that you could move large numbers of pigeons relatively cheaply
24:41and as most steam trains ran from kind of centres of population,
24:46which were majority of the pigeon fanciers lived,
24:49you could then move large numbers of pigeons cheaply,
24:53which meant that you could race pigeons.
24:55And some railways, lines even had designated bespoke pigeon carriages.
25:01And they would be sent to the local station master
25:04who would take the baskets off,
25:06read his instructions from the club
25:08as to what time, roughly, they wanted them liberating
25:11and the station master would liberate the pigeons.
25:13They would then fly home.
25:17Pigeon fancying attracted thousands of new members.
25:21But at the same time the pigeon expressives
25:23were helping to promote the hobby,
25:25local councils were plotting to stop it.
25:27Through the 20s and 30s,
25:32the government pushed through a national programme of slum carers.
25:37Thousands of working-class families were rehoused,
25:40but their pigeons had no place in suburbia.
25:44Local authorities across Britain are somewhat reluctant
25:47to allow pigeons to be kept on their new estates.
25:50They were perfectly aware that neighbours regarded pigeons as nuisances often.
25:55They made a lot of noise, they created a lot of mess,
25:57they were allegations that they would damage houses and outbuildings.
26:02The pigeon fanciers, however, were blessed with long memories and foresight.
26:07Pigeon associations start lobbying councils saying,
26:11remember just how important pigeons were in the First World War.
26:14If there's going to be another conflict,
26:15the country's going to need pigeons.
26:18And what we see in the late 1930s is council after council
26:21going back on some of its previous bounds on keeping pigeons.
26:24And we see pigeon racing allowed again on some of the new council estates
26:28that have been built.
26:29And thank goodness, because the pigeon associations were proved right.
26:36In 1939, another war did break out.
26:40And Britain had a new batch of birds to send to battle.
26:43You know, they were like the James Bond of the pigeon world.
26:49And they made a hell of a lot of good flights.
26:54The RAF have got the bird, or rather the birds.
26:57That's pigeon English for the feathered messengers
26:58that are being tried out to speed up communication.
27:00An RAF pigeon takes off from the cockpit.
27:03Pigeons in the Second World War were called up to serve in the various forces.
27:08And this document is basically the call-up papers
27:10instructing the pigeon fancier where to deliver his pigeons to.
27:15And these, in particular, go into an RAF station.
27:19Once the pigeons arrived at the RAF station,
27:21the owner would then lose all track of where those pigeons are.
27:24Pigeons in this war had two main jobs.
27:29The first was as an aide to spy,
27:33smuggling information out of occupied Europe back to Britain.
27:37They also carried films back.
27:41Where the Germans were releasing the Dootlebugs and all them, the B1,
27:47the first thing was the pigeon report, where that was happening,
27:51back on its back, on the film.
27:55The main problem here was how to deliver a pigeon to a secret agent.
28:00Luckily, someone came up with a cunning plan.
28:04What they quickly developed was a method of wrapping pigeons
28:08so they could drop them from aircraft.
28:12However, obviously, if you drop a pigeon that can't fly out from an aircraft,
28:16it will inevitably meet its end.
28:18And what they developed was the pigeon parachute.
28:23I would slip the pigeon into the tube.
28:27It would have in there a bit of food and a notebook,
28:32and then it would be fixed to a parachute.
28:35And this is a World War II pigeon parachute.
28:43And then the pigeon parachute would be released
28:47from the small aeroplane travelling over France.
28:51And the resistance boys would be down, see it coming, they would pick it up.
28:58And they were only allowed to keep them for two days.
29:02And then they would have to release them, and then we'd send more out there.
29:07And many thousands were parachuted into France,
29:10and some pigeons did this on numerous occasions.
29:13The second important use for pigeons was to act as SOS signals for stricken planes.
29:21Pigeons would accompany bomber crews on their missions.
29:25Most aircraft that took off from here
29:28had two pigeons put in the two metal tins,
29:33and they went out with them.
29:35If the plane was hit, and the crew had time to act,
29:39the pigeons would be released.
29:41It didn't matter what time, night, what weather conditions it were,
29:48they were thrown out to find home.
29:53In February 1942, this happened to a pigeon called Winky.
29:58She was one of two birds returning home from Norway with a crew.
30:01A Beaufort bomber had been hit by flak,
30:07and it had a ditch in the sea.
30:09When possible, birds were sent back
30:11carrying the coordinates of the crash location.
30:14But in this case, there was no time.
30:17And they liberated two pigeons, Winky,
30:21and the other one never made it.
30:23It was lost, probably drowned.
30:26In the middle of February,
30:28when the weather was really cold and wet and bad,
30:31covered in oil,
30:33Winky faced a 120-mile journey in freezing winds
30:36to her loft on the Scottish coast.
30:39But Winky didn't manage to fly back home.
30:43The RAF knew when the plane had ditched
30:45and when Winky had arrived.
30:47Factoring in wind direction and Winky's likely speed,
30:50they worked out where the plane must be.
30:52After Winky had done a fantastic thing, got back,
30:57they made a medal up for all the animals,
31:01what we called the Dickin Medal.
31:04And of the 65 awarded to date,
31:07there's been one cat, three horses, 29 dogs,
31:12and 32 pigeons.
31:13So pigeons at the moment hold most of the Dickin Medals.
31:19The very first Dickin Medal for animal gallantry
31:21went to Winky the Pigeon.
31:24And Ken Hall was a member of the club that bred her.
31:28And he's still on display at Dundee Museum.
31:32He's been preserved and he's on display
31:35with his Dickin's Medal right up the present day.
31:41When the war ended,
31:42hundreds of thousands of pigeons
31:44were released across the world
31:45as symbols of freedom and hope.
31:50The hordes of pigeons made for a moving sight.
31:54But they wouldn't always be viewed that way.
31:59Come with me now as we fast forward
32:02to the early 1960s,
32:04and the centre of London,
32:06not yet swinging.
32:09One of the most familiar landmarks in London,
32:11the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
32:15Notice anything strange about it?
32:18Anything missing?
32:19No.
32:21Take a closer look.
32:22Tourists? Traffic?
32:23Have you guessed it?
32:25Living statues?
32:26No pigeons.
32:27Oh, of course.
32:29In the 1960s,
32:31London councillors began their assault
32:34on the pigeons in Trafalgar Square.
32:37They piped lines of plastic jelly on buildings
32:40to stop them perching.
32:42It didn't deter the pigeons for long.
32:45They just found other places to land.
32:48So why had pigeons gone from being heroes
32:51to pests?
32:52To pests.
32:57Word had got out
32:58that generous Londoners
33:00were handing out free meals.
33:01And more pigeons
33:09meant even more pigeons.
33:20Pigeons are prolific breeders.
33:23A pair can produce up to a dozen youngsters a year.
33:26And those young
33:27start breeding at six months.
33:30So that means one pair
33:31can beget around 18 children
33:33and grandchildren per annum.
33:36Each bird produces annually
33:38up to 25 pounds of poo.
33:43Pigeon math suggests
33:44that in the 1960s,
33:46about 35,000 pigeons
33:48were aerial bombing Trafalgar Square
33:51with 390 tonnes of guano a year.
33:55Why are you so anxious
33:56to clear the pigeons away from the buildings?
33:58To try and get the buildings clean
34:00and to stop the waste of public money
34:01in keeping them clean,
34:03to get them in a more hygienic condition.
34:06Wouldn't it be much easier
34:07to destroy the pigeons?
34:08It would, but what about the people?
34:11The people like them.
34:12They're a tourist attraction.
34:14Public opinion is against us.
34:16We like the pigeons to go onto the trees.
34:18It's not the pigeons we object to.
34:20It's what they leave behind on the buildings.
34:23Pigeons are among the few birds
34:25that have learnt to thrive alongside man.
34:28Their adaptability
34:29is the secret to their success.
34:31Now, always in these programmes so far,
34:36we've tried to go back
34:37into the past
34:39and find the ancestor of the bird
34:41or the creature that we're studying.
34:43And we'll do this now with pigeons.
34:45But first of all,
34:47we'll have a look at the five species of pigeons
34:50which we find in Britain and Europe.
34:52The beginning,
34:53the first one,
34:54is the wood pigeon.
34:56Pigeons are from the family of Columbidae.
34:59And all,
35:00no matter how fast,
35:02clever or fancy,
35:03share a common lineage.
35:06And that brings us on
35:07to the last of the five,
35:09the rock dove.
35:11Now, the rock dove
35:12is the most important
35:14and that's why we've left it until last.
35:16Note these black bars
35:18on this blue-grey back
35:21and this very white patch here
35:23which we have above the tail.
35:25The rock dove is the ancestor
35:27of all the tame pigeons.
35:29No matter where you find them
35:31and how varied they are,
35:32the rock dove is the one
35:33from which they came.
35:35The wild rock dove's natural habitat
35:38is seaside cliffs.
35:40They like to nest
35:41in the caves and cracks.
35:45Hence the pigeons' fatal attraction
35:47for our large
35:48and cliff-like old stone buildings.
35:50What good was a tube of council jelly
35:54against the might of evolution?
35:57But as Britain moved inexorably
35:59into the age of washing whiter
36:00and the clean modern lines
36:02of concrete and plastic,
36:04civic war was declared
36:05on the dirty old pigeon.
36:07The 50s and 60s
36:12sees a whole host
36:13of developments in housing.
36:14We see tower blocks,
36:16we see new council estates,
36:18we see private housing estates
36:19on the edge of towns
36:21and all of these things
36:22in many ways
36:23made it more difficult
36:24to keep pigeons.
36:25Utopia
36:26was pigeon-free.
36:29Die-hard fanciers
36:30had to set up
36:31their lofts elsewhere.
36:32Some of them
36:33did move
36:34to allotments
36:36and to areas
36:36further away
36:37from where they lived
36:38but because you had
36:40to go there every day
36:41to look after your birds
36:42that would require
36:43time and effort.
36:46Relocated,
36:47the lofts
36:47could be bigger
36:48and better.
36:50These coops
36:51were a visible part
36:52of working class communities
36:54and they often stand out
36:55as well
36:56because many pigeon racers
36:57painted them bright colours
36:59in order for it
37:00to be easier
37:00for the pigeon
37:01to spot which one
37:02of the coops around
37:03was its home.
37:05Pigeons are thought
37:06to be able
37:06to see millions
37:07of different hues.
37:09They recognise
37:10their own lofts
37:11and nesting boxes
37:12by colour.
37:14But the decoration
37:16of a new coop
37:16said something else too.
37:22It showed you cared
37:24even if no-one else did.
37:27Come on then.
37:29Come on.
37:30Drop the old handle.
37:32This is Sean, boy.
37:34Named after my grandson, Sean.
37:37Come on, ploward.
37:38Now then.
37:38This one has everything.
37:40Mainly,
37:41I should say,
37:43character.
37:44Come on, boy, then.
37:45Lovely.
37:46All right.
37:47Silky feather.
37:49Strong wings.
37:51Noble look in head.
37:54Look at the look
37:55of intelligence
37:56that this bird has.
37:58one that you only breed
38:01once, probably,
38:02in each lifetime.
38:07The disaffected wives
38:08of fanciers
38:09were called pigeon widows.
38:12Like local councils,
38:14many took a dim view
38:15of their husband's obsession.
38:17And I've heard men,
38:22grown men,
38:24who keep pigeons
38:25and they'll
38:26cool,
38:27cool,
38:27cool
38:27for bloody hours
38:28outside their pigeon creed
38:30talking to pigeons.
38:32And I just,
38:33somewhat,
38:33I cannot explain it all
38:35about them.
38:36I mean,
38:36I get up at 6 o'clock
38:37in the morning
38:37and my wife thinks
38:38I'm pretty
38:39out of my mind
38:40of time
38:41because I spend
38:41more time
38:42with the pigeons
38:43than I do
38:44with my family.
38:45I couldn't expect
38:46my wife to understand
38:47because she's a woman.
38:51It's better
38:52than being in there
38:52and being nagged
38:53all the while
38:53by a wife,
38:54I should say to myself,
38:55if you understand
38:56what I mean.
38:56Some guys,
38:59it's just their whole life,
39:00you know,
39:01and I can imagine
39:01what it's like
39:02to be with someone
39:04who's just
39:04totally obsessed
39:06with one thing,
39:06you know.
39:07But I know
39:08a few pigeon men now
39:09whose wives
39:10just aren't interested.
39:11It's just,
39:12it's just their thing,
39:14you know,
39:14and it's,
39:15they're just pigeon widows.
39:18This is part of him,
39:20you know,
39:20and I think
39:21every wife feels this
39:22many, many times
39:24when things,
39:24you know,
39:24you want to go out shopping
39:25and they want to go
39:26to the loft.
39:27Well,
39:27you can get them
39:28to stop going
39:29to the loft
39:29and stop being
39:30a pigeon man
39:31for a short while
39:31but they always go back.
39:34Even our courting years
39:35were all tied up
39:35with pigeons.
39:36I mean,
39:36most of our courting time
39:37was spent
39:38on the front
39:38of the pigeon loft,
39:39you know,
39:39it was a case of
39:41love me,
39:42love my pigeons
39:43and that's every pigeon man
39:44and if you don't,
39:45well,
39:45then you're just
39:46left outside.
39:48There was one woman
39:49who did grow up
39:50loving pigeons,
39:53the future Queen Elizabeth.
39:55That's her
39:56during the war
39:56and here
39:58as a small girl
39:59hanging out
40:00at the royal lofts.
40:05The Sandringham loft
40:06was established
40:07in the 1880s
40:08when the King of Belgium
40:12gave a pair
40:13of prized
40:14Delmot and Durian
40:15bred pigeons
40:16to the royal family.
40:17Now these pair
40:27of youngsters
40:27are roughly
40:28nearly three weeks old
40:29and they're the poor
40:31Delmot Durian strain.
40:33They're a fine pair
40:34of youngsters
40:34to look at now
40:36what they've turned out
40:37to be.
40:37Well, of course,
40:38one never knows.
40:39Go on.
40:40Len Rush
40:41became the young Queen's
40:42loft manager
40:43in 1962.
40:44In the 1980s
40:47he talked to the BBC
40:48about his passion.
40:51I always had had pigeons
40:52for many, many years
40:53and the birds I had then
40:55they were the same strain
40:57as the royal lofts
40:58because those pigeons
41:00came from the royal lofts.
41:02When I took over
41:03the Queen
41:03very kindly
41:04gave me the chance
41:05of keeping my own pigeons
41:07and racing hers.
41:09And, of course,
41:09there was a big contrast
41:10in having about 30 pigeons
41:12to roughly
41:13round about the 200 mark.
41:15On days
41:15when she wasn't busy ruling
41:17the Queen
41:18would drive out
41:18to the suburbs
41:19and chat on with Len
41:21about bloodlines
41:22and birdseeds.
41:24I love my pigeons.
41:26They're part of me.
41:27And although
41:28they belong to my majesty
41:29I look upon them
41:30as my pigeons.
41:33Let's leave
41:34homing pigeons there
41:35and turn our attention
41:37to another branch
41:38of pigeon fanciing.
41:41One of its most famous
41:43practitioners
41:43was the naturalist
41:45Charles Darwin.
41:46Darwin was fascinated
41:47by a phenomenon
41:48that took hold
41:49in the 1800s
41:50when fanciers began
41:52breeding extreme
41:53physical traits
41:54into their pigeons.
41:58Darwin had a theory
41:59that if man could do this
42:01then so could nature.
42:02his findings
42:04became a cornerstone
42:05of his groundbreaking book.
42:09And since then
42:10man has got
42:11genetic tinkering
42:12down to a fine art.
42:17This is Hein von Grau.
42:19He breeds
42:20Romanian naked necks.
42:23The Romanian naked neck
42:25most people don't like it
42:26because as you can see
42:27it has a naked neck.
42:29Clearly there were people
42:30who liked it
42:31because the mutation
42:33and the breed
42:33is still around.
42:34It was never popular
42:35even not in
42:37the country of origin.
42:40Come on,
42:40you're going up.
42:41But yeah,
42:42after more than 100 years
42:43it's still there.
42:46Hein also breeds
42:47silky pigeons
42:48and he's got a little
42:50experiment on the go.
42:52This one has just
42:53hatched today
42:54and a few hours
42:55out of the egg.
42:57It's already
42:58filled up here
43:00a little bit
43:00with pigeon milk
43:01so the parents
43:02have already fed it.
43:04Pigeons grow
43:05very fast.
43:06In one week
43:07this
43:07will become this.
43:10In the next two weeks
43:11he will be more or less
43:12fully grown,
43:14leave the nest
43:14and more or less
43:15being independent
43:16then.
43:18And this is a certain
43:19cross that will give
43:19silky feathers pigeons
43:21if I'm lucky.
43:21I can already see
43:22on the way
43:23the down is curly.
43:24It is a silky.
43:25That's sort of
43:28what he's aiming for
43:28but a different colour.
43:34No other domestic
43:36animal has lent
43:37itself to being
43:37bred into such
43:38a bewildering variety
43:40of forms
43:40or behaviours.
43:43My interest in pigeons
43:45is the Birmingham
43:46Roller Pigeon
43:46as it's called
43:47which is a
43:49performing pigeon.
43:52Well it came
43:53originally from
43:54the area around
43:56Birmingham,
43:56the West Midlands,
43:57the Black Country.
43:59Birmingham Roller Pigeons
44:01were first bred
44:02in the 1920s
44:03when a breeder
44:04called Bill Pensom
44:05noticed a pigeon
44:06do an unusual
44:07aerial role.
44:08He picked that trait
44:10out and he knew
44:11exactly what he wanted
44:12and it must have
44:13took him a long time.
44:16Well hopefully
44:17you'll see the birds
44:18go straight up,
44:19usually not,
44:19they need a flag
44:20to get them up
44:21because they're lazy.
44:23They'll circle the
44:24garden initially
44:25really tight
44:26and then hopefully
44:27they will gain altitude
44:28and fly together
44:29as a group.
44:32And then they'll
44:33get to a certain
44:34height,
44:34usually around
44:35200 feet maybe,
44:37sometimes higher.
44:38and then
44:39as the birds
44:40turn into the wind
44:41they will all
44:42break,
44:43flip backwards
44:43and roll down.
44:49It's very difficult
44:51to get 20 birds
44:53flying like that.
44:57Recent research
44:58suggests the trait
44:59that has been bred
45:00may be narcolepsy.
45:01In other words,
45:08these birds
45:08could be temporarily
45:09nodding off
45:10in flight.
45:16A more extreme
45:17creation
45:17is the parlour
45:18tumbler,
45:19a pigeon
45:20that has been bred
45:21to do this.
45:25The parlour tumbler
45:26has lost the ability
45:27to fly.
45:33The record
45:34for tumbling
45:35in a straight line
45:35is a mind-boggling
45:37200 metres.
45:40That just went
45:41about three.
45:44In 1984,
45:46cameras captured
45:47some of the methods
45:48then used
45:48in competitive
45:49fancy breeding.
45:50some of these birds
45:58as young birds
45:59get trained
46:00so they get used
46:01to it
46:01of keeping
46:02always the crop
46:04filled up with air.
46:05I will just
46:06shortly demonstrate
46:07how that is done
46:08but it is one
46:10of the
46:10part of the training
46:14of training
46:14a crop of bird.
46:17This practice
46:18is now frowned upon.
46:20Fancy breeding
46:25is often
46:26for competition.
46:28Breeders use
46:28all kinds of methods
46:29to show their bird
46:30to its best advantage.
46:35This is an African owl.
46:37One of the few breeds
46:39of short-faced pigeons
46:42which are not very good
46:44at feeding their own young.
46:46One of the main features
46:47is that that particular bird
46:49should have as short
46:50as possible beak.
46:52Fanciers use
46:53a little matchbox
46:57and file the beak
46:59down
47:00mainly to do it straight.
47:03It doesn't hurt the pigeon.
47:04Also we can give it
47:10a little bit
47:11cosmetic surgery
47:12of painting
47:14the waffles
47:15white.
47:17This is not illegal.
47:19All fanciers
47:20are doing it.
47:23Fancy breeding
47:24takes years
47:25to get results.
47:27But in the 1980s
47:28if you didn't have
47:29the time
47:30or the patience
47:30you could just
47:32cut corners.
47:33Before the war
47:34there were a lot
47:35of exotic birds here
47:36that lived on grapes
47:38and bananas
47:39and when I went
47:40to the war
47:41they died
47:42because there were
47:43no grapes
47:43or bananas
47:44and everyone
47:46was rather sad
47:47and I came back
47:48on leave
47:48and I thought
47:49what I could do
47:51to cheer the place up.
47:54Pigeon fancying
47:55appealed to all classes.
47:58It's just that
47:58the working class
47:59generally did most
48:00of the work.
48:03They have to be put
48:04in separate boxes
48:05in the airing cupboard
48:07to dry
48:07because otherwise
48:08they get together
48:10and their colours run.
48:13How fancy pigeons
48:14came to look
48:15as they do
48:15is easy to understand.
48:20But the remarkable
48:21homing instinct
48:22continues to perplex.
48:24we've got plenty
48:26of birds in the world
48:27that can fly
48:29from A to B
48:30on migration
48:33but they're the only
48:35bird that can fly
48:36at speed.
48:38In the 1970s
48:40scientists were convinced
48:41they could solve
48:42the mystery.
48:44The birds act
48:45as though
48:46upon release
48:47they somehow
48:48from the map
48:49determine
48:50in the abstract
48:51that home
48:52in this case
48:52is south east.
48:54We know very little
48:55about that map
48:56that small voice
48:57that tells the bird
48:58where he is
49:00and where home is.
49:02There's hundreds of theories
49:03the Americans
49:04years ago
49:05spent a fortune
49:07and I mean
49:08a lot of dollars.
49:11If one wants
49:12to find out
49:13the role of the eye
49:14and the role of vision
49:15the best thing
49:16is to
49:17eliminate vision
49:19but eliminating vision
49:20does not work
49:21in pigeons
49:22because as soon
49:23as you cut out vision
49:24then the bird
49:25does not fly anymore
49:26so we reduce
49:28vision
49:28by inserting
49:30frosted contact lenses
49:31into the bird's eye.
49:35They made them blind
49:37by patches
49:38over their eyes
49:39they've done everything
49:40but nobody knows.
49:43There are so many ways
49:44man has engaged
49:45with pigeon.
49:46All too often
49:47the pigeon
49:48has come off worse.
49:51Not so much pigeon
49:52fancying
49:53as whether you fancy pigeon.
49:56This was
49:57a wood pigeon.
49:59At this time of year
50:01which is the best time
50:02for pigeons
50:03when they're
50:04feeding grain
50:05and young vegetables
50:06in the fields
50:07and become
50:08very tender
50:09plump
50:10little birds.
50:12We've never liked
50:12to eat city pigeons
50:13considering them
50:15disease ridden vermin
50:16but come autumn
50:18the plumpious
50:19wood pigeon
50:19is consumed
50:20in a hundred
50:21different ways.
50:22The other pigeon dish
50:23we're doing
50:24at present
50:24on our menu
50:25is a roast pigeon
50:27in a sauce
50:28with armagnac
50:29and juniper berries.
50:31That looks delicious.
50:33Is it?
50:34It's pretty delicious.
50:36Really delicious.
50:37Oh delicious.
50:39I thought it was delicious.
50:40Yes I thought
50:41it might be.
50:44City pigeons
50:45continue to be targeted
50:47in a different way.
50:49In Trafalgar Square
50:50what had started
50:52in the 60s
50:52with a jelly gun
50:53ended in the noughties
50:55with a ban.
50:58There are just
50:59a few hours left
51:00if you want to feed
51:01the pigeons
51:02legally
51:02in Trafalgar Square.
51:04From tomorrow
51:04a new bylaw
51:05comes into effect
51:06outlawing it
51:07to get rid of
51:08what some people
51:09call flying rats.
51:12There was some
51:13public outcry
51:14and a campaign
51:15was launched.
51:17This pedestrian precinct
51:19that we're standing
51:19on here
51:20does not come
51:21within the confines
51:22of Trafalgar Square.
51:23People would therefore
51:24be perfectly
51:25within the law
51:27to feed
51:28in those areas.
51:29But this time
51:30the council won.
51:34In the world
51:35of pigeon racing
51:35things were looking
51:37bleak too.
51:38The glory days
51:39were well
51:40and truly over.
51:42So the peak
51:43was in the 60s
51:44and 70s
51:44pigeon results
51:45were placed
51:46on the back
51:46of the Sunday
51:47newspapers
51:47and pigeon racing
51:50had a much higher
51:51kind of social profile.
51:52Everybody understood
51:53what pigeon racing
51:54was about
51:54and really
51:55it's been a steady
51:56kind of decline
51:57from the 70s
51:59onwards.
52:00The pigeons
52:00old champions
52:01in the industrial towns
52:02were losing
52:03their own battles.
52:07That's the era
52:08when in many ways
52:09the traditional
52:10working class
52:11communities
52:11are on their
52:13last legs
52:14in their
52:14traditional form.
52:16It's the era
52:16of mass closures
52:18in the mining industry.
52:19It's the era
52:20when people feel
52:21an old way of life
52:22is starting
52:23to fade away
52:23and pigeon racing
52:25is part of that.
52:28Today the number
52:29of fanciers
52:29is way down
52:30on what it used to be.
52:32People want cleaner
52:33less consuming
52:35pastimes.
52:37There is not much room
52:38for people
52:38to keep pigeons.
52:40You can't let them
52:41flying out anymore.
52:43Even if you keep
52:44them indoors
52:45like I do
52:46you might have
52:47neighbours
52:48who start
52:48complaining
52:48about the noise.
52:50Nowadays
52:50it's perhaps
52:51a bit cynical.
52:52Everybody wants
52:52to go on holiday.
52:53I know by experience
52:54it's pretty difficult
52:55to find people
52:56who want to look
52:56after your birds
52:57and of course
52:58they never do it
52:58as well as you do
52:59anyway
52:59but it's a different
53:00story
53:01so I guess
53:02it's the whole
53:03modern world
53:04nowadays.
53:06But men like
53:07Ken Hall
53:08grew up with pigeons
53:09and the modern world
53:11just can't compete.
53:14These are
53:14hollique side
53:16allotments
53:17in Raya.
53:18Can we have a
53:19come and have a look
53:19inside and
53:20your birds?
53:22Come in.
53:23Come on
53:25my little darlings
53:26come on.
53:30So how many
53:31have you got
53:31in here Ken?
53:32There's about
53:3332.
53:34Most of them
53:35have flown
53:36the channel
53:36mind.
53:38Would you like
53:38me to catch one?
53:40Yes please.
53:40I'll try to
53:41if I can't.
53:42Oh my little
53:43darlings
53:44come on
53:45come on
53:46my little
53:46sweetheart
53:47come on.
53:48I used to
53:52race reasonably
53:53regularly
53:54today at my
53:55age
53:55I don't
53:56race as
53:57such
53:58but I do
53:59send my
53:59birds away
54:00with the
54:00club
54:01and they
54:01are liberated
54:02with the
54:03club.
54:05The good
54:06pigeons
54:06are hard to come
54:09by
54:09few and far
54:10between.
54:10I pick this
54:16as all
54:17this pigeon
54:17in the
54:18loft.
54:19It's a
54:19check white
54:20hen.
54:21Hello
54:21lass
54:21am I going
54:22to hurt you
54:23or not?
54:23I don't know
54:24why.
54:25Hmm?
54:26This will
54:28be my
54:28last year.
54:30I just
54:30can't look
54:31after them
54:32properly
54:32as I
54:34should be.
54:36Now I
54:36just enjoy
54:37watching them
54:40come back.
54:50Is that
54:50a baby owl?
54:52No it's
54:52me.
54:53The
54:53average age
54:54of a
54:54British
54:54pigeon
54:55fancier
54:55today
54:56is 65.
54:58One way
54:59forward
54:59is to
55:00encourage
55:00younger
55:01members
55:01but that
55:02isn't
55:02always
55:03easy.
55:04The
55:05younger
55:05generation
55:06don't
55:08really
55:09want
55:09a lot
55:10to do
55:11with
55:11the
55:11pigeons.
55:14It's
55:14a full
55:15time
55:15job.
55:17I've
55:18got two
55:18young
55:19grandchildren.
55:20The
55:20eldest
55:21one
55:21of the
55:21two
55:21he
55:22has
55:22actually
55:23spent
55:23hours
55:24in my
55:24pigeon
55:24life
55:25but he
55:27would
55:27still
55:27like
55:28to go
55:28out
55:28and
55:29play
55:29football.
55:31Do you think
55:31one day
55:31you'll raise
55:32pigeons as
55:32well?
55:33No.
55:33No.
55:35Because in a
55:37garden you probably
55:38haven't got the space
55:38to keep on.
55:40Yeah.
55:43We've already got loads
55:44of pets
55:44that's
55:45that's why.
55:49Pigeon
55:49fancying might
55:50be in
55:51decline
55:51in
55:51Britain
55:51but the
55:56sport has
55:56migrated
55:57all over
55:58the world.
56:01In
56:01eastern
56:02European
56:02countries
56:03and also
56:06southern
56:06Mediterranean
56:07countries
56:07pigeon
56:08racing
56:08is growing.
56:10average age
56:11the fancier
56:12there would
56:13probably be
56:13late teens
56:14early 20s
56:15and it's
56:16mainly on
56:17the back
56:17of kind
56:18of one
56:18loft
56:18racing
56:19where the
56:19prizes
56:20associated
56:21with one
56:21loft
56:21race
56:22are kind
56:22of life
56:23changing.
56:24One
56:24loft
56:25racing
56:25is the
56:26modern
56:26way
56:26of getting
56:27into
56:27the
56:27sport.
56:28You
56:29can win
56:29money
56:29but don't
56:30need to
56:30spend
56:31any
56:31on having
56:31your
56:32own
56:32loft.
56:33It's
56:33an
56:33innovation
56:34that has
56:34brought
56:34in a
56:35lot
56:35of
56:35new
56:35blood.
56:35It's
56:37not
56:37impossible
56:38to
56:38imagine
56:38a
56:38future
56:39where
56:39suddenly
56:39people
56:40rediscover
56:41pigeon
56:41racing.
56:42After
56:42all,
56:43the
56:43attractions
56:44that
56:44made
56:44it so
56:44popular
56:45in the
56:45late
56:4519th
56:46and
56:46early
56:4620th
56:46centuries
56:47are
56:47still
56:47there.
56:48It
56:48is
56:48still
56:48a
56:48sport
56:49that
56:49challenges
56:49people,
56:50that gives
56:50people a
56:51sense of
56:51excitement,
56:52a sense of
56:53accomplishment
56:53as they
56:54see their
56:54bird grow
56:55from a
56:56small chick
56:56into an
56:58adult that
56:58can race
56:59and can
56:59bring some
57:00fame and
57:00stature to
57:01them as
57:01individuals.
57:04This is
57:05today's
57:05typical
57:06pigeon
57:06fancier,
57:07somewhere
57:08in China.
57:10That he
57:10could be
57:10any
57:10British
57:11pigeon
57:11man
57:11of the
57:11last
57:12160
57:12years.
57:15Their
57:15faces
57:15express
57:16the
57:16same
57:16hope,
57:17the
57:18same
57:18focus.
57:22Perhaps
57:22this is
57:22a good
57:23time for
57:23a last
57:24bit of
57:24pigeon
57:25maths.
57:26Patience
57:27plus
57:28purpose
57:28equals
57:30pleasure.
57:35For
57:36me,
57:36there's
57:36nothing
57:36better
57:37than
57:37early
57:38on a
57:38summer's
57:38day.
57:39You let
57:40your
57:40birds out
57:41to fly.
57:42They go
57:42up like
57:42tiny little
57:43dots.
57:45They'll
57:45come
57:45sweeping
57:46down.
57:46You'll
57:46hear the
57:46wings come
57:47across
57:47your head.
57:51Back
57:51up and
57:52disappear
57:52off.
57:54That's
57:55a magical
57:55sight.
57:58We keep
57:59saying,
57:59me and
58:00the wife,
58:00that we
58:01get rid of
58:01them.
58:02We pack
58:02it all
58:02up.
58:04But the
58:05next day
58:05I go up
58:06there and
58:06sit in
58:07my chair.
58:09No,
58:10life wouldn't
58:10be worth
58:11living without
58:12the pigeon
58:13there.
58:15I think
58:16so anyway.
58:32I go up
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