Pull a fast one
Malcolm Plant looks at the Victorian sport of trap shooting at live pigeons, which has long since been banned in the UK but was the foundation of much of today’s clay shooting
Avisit to Shropshire in December reminded me of another visit to the county a couple of years ago, to the excellent Blists Hill Victorian Museum in the Ironbridge Gorge.
In the relocated and rebuilt Printing Shop I noticed a flyer that the lady guide referred to as the ‘fat pig’ advert. In fact, the flyer was a notice announcing a pigeon shooting competition at the Cape of Good Hope Inn, with the promoter, and probably owner of the pub, R A Jarvis, putting up a prize of a fat pig and also a purse of £5.
From the early 1800s, live pigeon trap shooting became popular around the industrial towns of the UK, initially occurring often in fields adjacent to pubs and inns. Back in those early days the competitors would have used flintlock shotguns.
Further research revealed some more detail on how the competitions were run in my neck of the woods in north-east England. On Thursday 6 February 1851, the publican at the Fleece Inn, Hartlepool put on a competition for 16 ‘subscribers’ who would shoot at three pigeons, each for the prize of – you guessed it – another fat pig.
The subscriber’s entry fee was 7 shillings and 6 pence (37.5p today); so the total entry income was £6. Mr John White, the publican, advised that the pig was worth £6 and 10 shillings (£6.50 today). A second prize of 10 shillings (50p) was to be paid by Mr White. The third placed competitor was to get their entry fee reimbursed by the overall winner.
The organiser shelled out £7 and had to provide the live pigeons, at least 48, and there may have been more required for the ties, plus a few to account for escapees.
The equipment and helpers also needed to be funded. He received £6 in competitor’s fees. Mr White would no doubt have been expecting a significant number of spectators, with plenty of beer and pies consumed. There would also have been gambling on the outcome of each competitor’s performance.
Competition
There were many different ways of running a shoot and the rules developed between 1800 and 1850. The Hartlepool day mentions ‘21 Yards Rise’, which is the distance between where the trap box containing the pigeon was positioned and the marker stand for the shooter. When the competitor called ‘Pull’ an operator behind the shooter tugged a string that flipped open the pigeon box. That’s why we call ‘Pull’ when shooting clays today. The bird may not have flown out immediately, but the competition announcement says that the Gun’s start position must be “below the elbow (near the competitor’s waist) until the bird is on the wing”. Proper ‘gun down’ shooting.
As the competitions and rules developed and a gun start position in the shoulder and cheek might be allowed but that Thursday in Hartlepool it was most definitely ‘gun down’. The shooter had got to crack on because the other rule specification was ‘80 Yards Fall’.
A boundary line or fence would be placed as an 80 yards circle and the shot bird had to fall inside that marker line to count as a kill. That is actually quite a lenient boundary and often the limit was much closer to the Gun.
The maximum load of shot in the cartridges being used was specified as 1½oz or 42g; they obviously liked to get some lead in the air in those days, considering that the maximum trap shooting load allowed today in English clay disciplines is 28g or 1oz.
A Fleece pub still exists in Hartlepool but it is not in Northgate any more.
There was a Cape of Good Hope in Shropshire in the village of Billingsley near Bridgnorth but it has now closed. I wonder if this was the Cape of Good Hope where the competition took place? There are several pubs of this name in the West Midlands.
Another rule mentioned in the Shropshire competition was the ‘handicap distance’. This could be applied in different ways, but I guess that being declared ‘open’ meant that everyone shot from the same distance marker and that equal scores might be resolved by moving the shooting stand further back. I wonder who won the fat pig?
Beginnings
The earliest records of live pigeon trap shooting are rather lost in the mists of time but a pub in Ealing to the west of London that came to be known as The Old Hats is a contender. In the late 1700s trap shooting was held there with the pigeon concealed under discarded old head-wear, like a tophat, which was pulled out of the way with string to release the target.
By the early 1800s, a club with the same name had been formed and in about 1820
“Live pigeon trap shooting was the proving ground for technical advances”
had relocated to the Red House pub in Battersea on the south side of the Thames, in open fields opposite Chelsea.
The clientele started to come from a wider and more affluent background and this was reflected in the prizes and wagers that were changing hands. Magazines and newspapers started to report matches between two or four elite shooters and for larger open competitions with much larger numbers of pigeons in the tournaments.
For head-to-head competitions the best score from 50 or 100 pigeons per shooter was not uncommon. Prize money or wagers that awarded £50, £100 or £200 to the winner were put up, and this brought in large crowds of spectators.
That was a lot of money in those days; an average worker would probably not earn that much in a lifetime.
The Red House shooting ground continued in operation until the mid-1800s and other shooting grounds and clubs opened up around London. At Hornsey Wood Tavern, near Finsbury Park, competitions using two traps, spaced a few yards apart were arranged.
The decision as to which trap would be pulled was carried out by a ‘referee’ standing behind the competitors, and was simply decided by the spin of a coin. Eventually, some grounds used five traps and this type of layout continues to this day for Helice clay target shooting.
Shooting at The Welsh Harp pub near Hendon took off from the mid-1800s. Brent Reservoir was constructed adjacent to the grounds and the Midland Railway with Hendon station was routed nearby; the area became developed for housing but shooting continued until around 1880. Wembley Stadium was built just down the road.
Gunmakers
With the increasing participation of wealthy competitors, alongside the publicity generated by the sports columns in newspapers and The Field, our sister publication, it became apparent to the top English gunmakers that their guns should feature in the sport.