Racing Pigeons

Blantyre's Ain Website

Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Blantyre history

Racing Pigeon’s

Another bite sized chunk of Blantyre History

Pidgeon Doocot

Situated three-quarters of the way down Church Street on the west side there was a small wooded area which ran from Church Street through to the next street west called Logan Street, this small wooded area was called St John’s Wood, why I do not know? In all my years living there, I had maybe heard it called by this name a couple of times at the most, and yet the name has stuck in my memory.

At the corner of St John’s Woods, there was a small hut with some seats and a stove in it that various clubs from around Blantyre used for a meeting hall. Next to the small hall was the local Doocet as we called it. This was a Racing hall. This hall, was upstairs above a part of the Priory Bar Properties. Just past the big green doors through which the beer was delivered.

Pigeon racing was a big part of miners’ lives in the later years 1930-1960, for those that could afford it and had not drunk their money away. The miners and others kept their pigeons at home in their own Doocot, but at week-ends, they were brought to the Doocet to have them tagged for racing. This was done by a placing a round tag on one of the legs with a specific number which had been allocated to this owner. The Pigeons were usually loaded on to a train leaving for a specific destination where the local pigeon enthusiasts would time them when they were let loose to fly back to their Doocot. The Blantyre pigeon club would do like-wise, All good clean fun except for the occasional droppings.

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Continuing the conversation between Thomas Dunsmuir Hartman in Chicago (known as TDH or Drapadew) and originally from Logan Street, Blantyre and Margaret in Queensland Australia on TalkingScot.

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Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland

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