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A 50Yr Journey


Pompey Mick
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Loft No1 was quickly followed by loft No2, built late 1962 with racing in mind. Eggs on Xmas day & Boxing Day 1962 (remember that winter 62/63) were my team for the coming 1963 season. Still on top of the air-raid shelter and I used to sit on top of the coalyard shed behind the loft and enjoy the 'wonderful view' of a myriad of chimney pots all across Portsmouth. I was 15/16 in those pictures

 

 

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Nice pics. Mick, I was born and still lived in Southampton then, I certainly remember that winter, did we not have gritters in those days? The ice on the roads was murder, I had an Austin 7 ruby at the time, no power, no brakes just about perfect for those conditions

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Hi billt,

We had the blizzard on Boxing day and the snow stayed till March, We had to fit polythene covers to the front of the lofts to keep out the snow, the youngsters thrived though, they won me the YB averages that year, with 2nd& 4th Solent fed St Malo as the highlight (1st&2nd club).

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Great photo's Mick,1962 is when I started up.I kept the birds in our coal house after the introduction of smokeless fuel and we got a gas fire.Then with the building of the Ford plant(Halewood L'Pool) on farmland in front of our house,I had an endless supply of wood so built my first loft.Happy days

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In late 1964 we learned that our whole neighbourhood was going to be cleared and a new estate built, (you can see from the pictures that it wasn't the most grandest of areas). We were set to be rehoused by the Council and set about viewing offered properties, being a pigeon fancier they had to meet certain criteria and we ended up being one of the last to leave when we finally found a suitable location.

It was a far cry from the cramped terraced houses of Buckland, it was a veritable Shangri-La for a pigeon fancier. Situated on the Eastern side of Portsmouth, a short walk from Langstone Harbour with views across to Emsworth and Chichester and it backed onto a special needs school. For us, a dream location. Moved in February 1965, broke the birds in four days and timed in from Pau NFC on the day with a broke-off pigeon. Happy days.

 

Loft No 3

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

In 1984, after a fantastic season in 1983, tragedy struck when my Father suddenly died of a heart attack in late March, we had just had the YBs out for the first time and I had to move the loft & birds to my garden quickly as the house had to be vacated. Being a much smaller garden I had to downsize and redesign the sheds, the Wife, who was much happier now the birds were in the back garden had to suddenly become pigeon-friendly, which she did, and still does, to great effect having timed in on numerous occasions over the years.

Here she is handling one of my (our) birds.

 

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3 yrs ago I decided that the loft across the bottom had come to the end of its useful life being over 40yrs old. A decision was made to remove it and replace with a 12 X 6 YB/Stock Loft on the other side of the garden to get a bit more length in the garden.

 

 

The most recent alterations I did (and hopefully the last) was adding external doors to all the sections on the widowhood loft for easier access.

 

 

The End

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  • 1 month later...

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