Pull a fast one
“Live pigeon trap shooting was the proving ground for technical advances”
A visit 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,
