I’ve been thinking for a while what I could undertake as a photography project – something to give me a focus and would be worthwhile. I tend to do some of my most creative thinking at night, or more precisely in the middle of the night. Often these musings, which seem so amazing at 2am or 3am, on waking are often rubbish but occasionally there might be an idea that has legs. I’m sure this is one of those.
My home town of Kirkbymoorside is a quite small and my children will often say there’s not a whole lot happening. While that may be true it is a strong community and one of things that makes it a delightful place to live are it’s clubs and associations. I’ve been aware of the Kirkby Flying Club for a number of years. A neighbour of my father in law – Michael, who lives in nearby Sinnington, has raced pigeons all his life and I’ve often seen him walking up and down the road from his house to where he keeps his birds. Kirkby Sports Field, where my son played football for years, is also the location of the club shed, more lately portacabin. So I’ve been aware of their existance and it must have been these references that sparked a thought – why don’t I document the club and it’s members?
So I popped in to see Michael when we were next in Sinnington visiting my father-in-law. Of course he wasn’t at home but down at his pigeon loft. Michael is quite a shy man, a bachelor who lived with his parents until they died and today lives alone. He has a sister in the village however and is a regular dominoes player at the village pub. Retired now after being an electrician, his birds are a big part of his life. When I saw him I explained my idea of doing a photography project about the club and he pointed me in the direction of Audrie – the secretary who it would be best I contact first.
It was a sensible move.
Audrie is the kind of person you want as a secretary for your club – organised and efficient. She asked me what my ideas were and suggested I come to the next gathering of the members when I could see if there was any interest.
So on the following Saturday evening I found myself in the portacabin of the Kirkby Flying Club amongst clocks, bits of papers and members eager to discover how their birds had done in the penultimate race of the season. It was immediately apparent – pigeon racing is a complicated business, very complicated! What was also clear was that the members are a super group of people and all very welcoming to this man with a camera who had appeared in their midst.
The project was on.
My initial idea was to visit the members and document them with their birds – when I say document I was thinking both photography and audio. Recording interviews so that within the book I am hoping to produce I can add some information about the members, alongside their images. My first willing volunteer was Fred Grimmer who lives in Pickering and was happy to see me the following week.
I was welcomed by Fred, his wife Jane and countless spaniels on a lovely sunny afternoon and was soon being introduced to a sport that has a long history, both in this country and abroad. I interviewed Fred using my iPhone and reflected later, as I looked at the images I had taken that afternoon, that I should limit myself to doing one thing or the other but not both! Thankfully however recording interviews has been taken out of my hands but more of that delightful development in a while. Here’s some of the photos I took at Fred’s.
I completed my visit with Fred showing me his canaries – over a hundred, but that’s another story.
The following Friday was the final race of the season and the birds were being picked up around 7pm from the sports field. I made sure I was there.
Fred and Jane’s grandson Eli enjoyed using one of my cameras and took some good shots too. And then the birds were off down to Chelmsford. The weather wasn’t good on the Saturday so they decided to hold on to them for 24hrs and set them away on Sunday. By Sunday evening they were back home, or at least most were. Fred and Jane were downhearted as three of their birds hadn’t checked in. Bob was happy though, he’d won £100 for one of his birds did well in the nominated race. Albert had the fastest bird overall.
And that was it – the last race of the season, until next April.
Time now then to visit the members, at home with their birds. A lovely development to the project has been fellow thespian Libby, on hearing about the project, offering to get involved by recording an audio history of the members. We are thinking that alongside a photographic display Libby would put together a soundscape of some sort in the Moorside Rooms, next March, just before the new racing season begins.
So it was both of us who went to visit Bob this morning and what a delight it was.
Bob is born and bred in Kirkbymoorside and in January will celebrate his 80th birthday. He lives in Kirkby Mills but his pigeons are kept down Ings Lane which is where we met him. Libby took out her brand new recording equipment, I started taking photos and Bob told us story after wonderful story. He’s a great raconteur with an amazing family history which is all encapsulated in a large book that he was later to show us when he invited Libby and I back to his home.
We both left hoping Bob would agree to see us again, to record further stories – I sense Libby has thoughts about other project ideas!
We’re hugely grateful for the time Bob gave us and excited about a project that we both know is going to be very special indeed.