OF YEARS AGO!
Crowded Trains
By Richard Beckett
NOT Newhaven I know, but does anybody recall scenes like these in the 1960's/70's on the track along the top of East Beach?
The train will have travelled down overnight from the Midlands with their attendants/owners. Then the Carriage sides were dropped down early in the morning, the cages unloaded and the birds fed and watered. After a while came the mad rush to open the cages and let the birds go. I can recall seeing hundreds of pigeons fly upwards en-masse, circle round a few times then split up into small groups and off up the valley on their way home to their lofts. There always seemed to be a few who never made it out of Newhaven and it was usual for a couple of days afterwards to see one or two still around long after the train had gone.
Now Pigeon trains are a thing of the past.
And of course there helping would be John Hawkins who lived in Station Road, for he also raced Pigeons but on a smaller scale. Many the day I have seen him wheeling his bike down to the Railway Station with a loaded Pigeon basket on the front carrier. The basket with it's destination label, would be put in with the Guard and transferred from station to station until it reached it's destination. There a local pigeon fancier would collect the basket and at the appropriate time would release the pigeon(s) to fly back to Newhaven. The cage label would then be reversed and the cage sent on it's way back by rail to Newhaven. However I never did get to find out if all his pigeons made it back.
Now John, his pigeons, pigeon baskets and Guards on passenger trains are a thing of the past.