Black Tipplers
(Internet Published) August 2002
We had two very famous Tippler men in Sheffield many years ago whom either
specialised in Black Tipplers or kept quite a few of them. One was Sam
Billingham who developed these self-blacks from the old Sheffield type of
Tippler. He did very well with these but he also had some Blue Bars. In
fact, Billingham's blues and blacks were a legend in their time.
Then there was George Marlow of Stannington, Sheffield, who also had a
strain of self-blacks. These did very well for him and he was at one time a
World record holder. I also know that George Marlow passed on a few of his
self-blacks to the great Gordon Hughes.
I believe that in a lot of Tippler lofts in Old England one could find a few
self-black Tipplers. Then of course the self-reds became popular.
They were particularly attractive birds in rather a deep red - Not dilute
red although the dilutes in several colours could be found quite easily.