Boglin Marsh
Boglin Marsh Chronicle
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THE INFLUENCE OF THE 'BOVYN - SALSMAN' PIGEONS UPON THE BRITISH PIGEON FANCY.

One of my major influences pre teenage years towards the long distance racing pigeon was the introduction of a red grizzle cock that was a gift to my friend Dennis Martin from the late Bob Webster of Blackpool Homing Society and Marton Village H.S. This bird was one of a nest pair of brothers that had both proved themselve's as long distance winners before Bob's retirement from the sport. Bob Webster was the father-in-law of the late Capt. W. Mather, with Bob himself also being a legend within his own lifetime throughout Blackpool pigeon racing circles. The two nestmate pigeons were known as 'Bovyns 35 & 36', originating via bloodlines to the original stock imported by local veterinarian and champion fancier Tom Taylor during the early part of the 1900's. Very little was ever known about these pigeons, because Mons. Bovyn, although a champion of his region in Belgium, was not a commercially minded fancier, so very few ever came onto the open market. 'Bovyn 35' was broken to the loft and raced by Dennis and myself to the loft above the workshop in Bagot Street. As a broken bird it provided several wins from France over a three year period and could be described as the star of the loft. This cock pigeon was one of the most wonderfully balanced birds that I ever had the pleasure of handling - to me it was perfection and I became enamoured with the type : so much so that it became a quest for the Holy Grail when attempting to discover the history of the strain. The deeper I delved, then the more the mystery grew, because investigation revealed countless strains of British racing pigeons owing their foundation to the small team loft of Bovyn-Salsman bloodlines. I wrote several articles for the British Homing World regarding the mystery regarding the origin of these birds, it must have intrigued the nation, because hundreds of answers came flooding in, from fanciers who had delved into old documents for assistance and the findings were a revelation. This little known fancier/partnership of Bovyn - Salsman had influenced the British pigeon fancy far more than any of the better known and more publicised names - Bovyns were to be found at the base of almost every major long distance family in the United Kingdom!

I reproduce below part of the search and the revelations.

Well now lads and lasses, I think that congratulations are in order to each and every one of you! It is quite amazing just what might be achieved when people apply their minds and efforts in unison and not in counter productive ways. Between us we have discovered the "Holy Grail" and the origin of world beating pigeons from the source of Mons Bovyn-Salsman from Laeken in the Antwerp area of Belgium. I can only say that you are remarkable people and I am delighted to have you all as friends.

Steve Grose burned the midnight oil as he had never burned it before - reading book after book that had been unopened for many long years. So it appears have so many others and all have discovered things that they once knew but had long forgotten and will now be re-introducing them into their routine management once again.

Countless top racing families have come to light that contained the lines of Gits & Hansennes obtained via Blackpool's Tom Walker, A.H. Turner and Tom Taylor and then contemporary strains from James Lucas and his Vandevelde's. No fancier could have delved deeper than Albert Tarleton - he has the directories from 1896; bound in hard-back and presented to him by the late Dr. Tom Rigg. Albert spent days researching and it was he who came up with the "Source of the Nile" - Mons Bovyn-Salsman of Laeken in Belgium.

Albert discovered an advertisement proclaiming a "major coup" for Alf Derbyshire. The auctioneer had obtained a draft of 25 pigeons from Mons Bovyn the long distance champion of his era - a small team amateur fancier who competed against the massive wealth and teams of the famous. The importance of Bovyn has been long overlooked in the British fancy and yet they founded dynasties that are still winning from the distance today - albeit in very much diluted form. In truth the Bovyns were more important than the Gits or any other major name for one very simple reason - there were so very few ever imported; a mere six pigeons per annum over a period of approximately 20 years. They were certainly not cheap as the Alf Derbyshire draft were priced at 15 shillings each during 1896. In real terms a weeks wages was approximately 1 shilling per week at that time! This must give some idea of the wealth of top fanciers of that day and the cloth cap image must certainly have been unwarranted. Obviously the price was prohibitive for the majority but Bovyn must have been some really superb fancier with a small team and the small numbers could not have made his stock into a mass market commodity as were the more available strains of Gits, Gurnay etc. It has also been revealed that grizzles went into the Sions, Bricoux and Stassarts, they also went into the melting pot of Gits and Hannsenne - these are assumed to be Bovyn & Fache.

Two of the main purchasers at the Alf Darbyshire sale were Mr. Jarret and Mr H. Marsden-Flint. The grizzles from Marsden - Flint went into the melting pot of Proctor Smith, Thoroughgood and Harry H. Smith and F. W. Marriott : what were once thought to be "Pure Grooters" now turn out to be "Bovyn" influenced crosses. So the fanciers who pointed towards H. H. Smith were partly correct in their assumptions. The three most important pigeons in H.H. Smith's family were his base of H. Marsden - Flint's "Champion White 'un & Champion Newsboy" both being grizzles emanating from his Alf Darbyshire purchases via Mons Bovyn- Salsman! Suddenly a fancier of whom nobody had heard has become the single most important factor in British pigeon racing history - and you found him in the Blackpool Pigeon Fancy! Quite remarkable doesn't one think and now it is up to you all to research even further and find this blood today! It is there in the Kirkpatrick grizzles - the type is still true in the Dawes photographs but where are the Southwell's, Warrington's, Chiver's, Almond's, Thorougood's etc, etc, ad infinitum? Somebody somewhere will still be racing these successfully from the longer distance and I will wager that their losses are minimal. What about Des Coulter's? The grizzles are definitely Bovyn Type - it would be interesting for the fancy to know of their original base! I believe that they also contain the Barker X Bovyn base via George Stubbs that played a major part in the foundation lines of the A. R. Hill family and Krkpatrick's. It was also interesting to note from the 1896 directory that Mons Gits sale list demonstrated that no two pigeons for sale came from a common source - so from where- commeth the "Pure Gits" when the man himself was a pigeon dealer and none-purist? What we see and what we get are two completely different things!