FROM CLIFF TURNER, IN NEW ZEALAND
Your mention of pigeon racing reminded me of my Grandad Turner’s step-brother Fred Richardson, a Brigg coal merchant.
In about 1935 when he bought Oakleigh House, next to the Grammar School, from his step-mother he moved his pigeon loft from his previous home at 6 Redcombe Lane.
I can remember seeing Post Office staff putting corks on nearby telephone wires so that pigeons would not fly into the wires.
NF ADDS: Oakleigh was eventually demolished to make way for a new two-storey classroom block at Sir John Nelthorpe School. During one hot and unusually dry summer in the early 1970s, when Brigg Grammar was still on the go, all the greenery in Oakleigh's garden began to grow at a very rapid rate. We put this down to a leak from the school swimming pool, just a few yards away.
1. The house numbering in Redcombe Lane has probably changed over the years...No 6 is now a 1960 semi....
ReplyDelete2. I remember seeing corks on telephone lines in the early 50's.....we use to have a caravan in North Wales and the phone lines near the camp-site where festooned in corks.... My Dad told me - about 5, or 6 at the time, that they were there so drivers of tall vehicles could see them. Many of the poles were wonky and were leaning.
On one occasion, there was a lot of commotion after a lorry had pulled down a web of wires.
At that time the wires were uninsulated and were really just bare ?copper wire.
On reflection, it would. make sense to highlight the sections of phone wires that were in danger of being damaged by roosting birds/vehicles and so on.