A Glimpse into Tippler History
(Internet Published) Feb 2001
In the December issue of "Our News", which is the bulletin of the American
Flying Tippler Society, an article by Michael Beat appeared. Part of it
touched a nostalgic nerve and cast my mind back to the 1930's.
Many a boy started his pigeon career by buying pigeons from the livestock
market. The career mostly lasted for about 4 weeks before someone's cat
killed the pigeons or the boys discarded them as a child will discard a toy.
Nevertheless, some of these boys, like Michael Beat, made great progress. It
was almost a ritual on Saturday afternoons in Sheffield, England, and the
1930's. All kind of men and children would hop on the tramcars to the centre
of this city and visit the livestock exchange. Anything from a box of day
old chickens, a goldfish, a canary, a rabbit, a mouse, a guinea pig, a
kitten, a dog - to a range of pigeons including Tipplers, Tumblers and
unidentifiable specimens - attractive or ugly. It certainly was a meeting
place for various tipper men as well as rogues, kids and dabblers. In fact,
a lot of the pigeon feed was bought there.
The public notice on the wall said it all "The management will accept no
responsibility for the origin or health of this here livestock. We buy them
in good faith and sell them in good faith". Many a man visited these cages
and found some of his lost or stolen birds, mostly with their bands cut off
and was happy to buy them, with no ideas of finding out who took them for
sale to the market. An inspection of these cages often revealed some
excellent looking specimens of Tipplers. If a man asked the proprietor who
bough them in for sale, he would just point to the public notice and say no
more. Nevertheless, if a man spoke to the proprietor and said "Look - here
is a two shilling coin, if you get anything that looks like the real McCoy,
then reserve them for me. I will be here 2pm next Saturday to have a look at
them." The proprietor knew Tipplers and a greased palm of hand is
notoriously effective.
I myself had some really fantastic Macclesfield's from there. Their style of
flying took my breath away. The cost was about 18p per bird in 1935 for the
very best. However, the War came in 1939 and after that everything of old
Sheffield seems to vanish. The market has vanished, the tram cars have gone.
A way of life has vanished.