Dovecote trail reveals farming methods of old

Archaeologists in the Yorkshire Dales are searching out dovecotes or the location of those that have disappeared.

Robert White, the senior conservation archaeologist Dales, says: "They played an important part in rural life in the National Park. The birds they housed provided their owners with eggs and meat, feathers for bedding and fertiliser. We want to hear from people who have them – whether they are built into their houses or outbuildings or are freestanding.

"I want to get a better idea of the distribution of the post-medieval dovecotes built in houses within the National Park, to see if we can pick up a bit more information in terms of regional patterns. Are they in the Craven area of the park where we expect to get much more arable cultivation, or do they move up the valleys as well, to areas where there was less arable cultivation? Can we use them as a surrogate for plotting arable perhaps?"

Dovecotes are mainly found in the roof spaces of village barns and houses, often above porches and the entrance holes are usually quite high off the ground and they have tight internal access doors to deter predators like weasels, martens and rats.

The centre of national dovecote inquiry is Whitby, home of Alan Whitworth who is the secretary of the British Dovecote Society. According to their figures, there are now about 3,000 remaining across the whole country. Once there were 10 times as many.

"The main use for dovecotes was for the collection of the pigeon droppings – it made the best fertiliser," says Alan. "If you trace the history right back, dovecotes first appeared in about 2,000BC in Egypt and Iran and places like that, where they were massive. Think of a 10-storey tower and 100ft in diameter. They used the guano specifically for the fields in a semi-desert place."

The usefulness of the pigeons' by-products didn't end there. They provided the vital saltpetre used in the production of gunpowder.

"Saltpetre comes from the mixture of earth and pigeon droppings," explains Alan. "Dovecotes weren't allowed to have floors because they wanted the pigeon droppings to sit on the earth. Two or three times a year the King's men would come and dig out the dovecote bottom with all the earth and the pigeon droppings, and take it away to be processed into saltpetre."

Dovecote building was brought over here by the Romans. Later, and

because of their explosive significance, the building of dovecotes was strictly controlled by the Crown. It wasn't until 1761 that the authorities felt sufficiently confident of there being no more potential Guy Fawkeses lurking about to pass a law allowing freeholders to build their own dovecotes.

Dales archaeologist Robert White believes that many of those on his patch may have dated from this time. He explains that at that period more freeholders were living around here than in other parts of the country as a consequence of the dissolution of the monasteries a couple of centuries earlier.

This was the time when people who were tenant farmers before the dissolution were beginning to develop their own houses and their own farms – the first generation of yeoman farmers. As their prosperity grew, many saw dovecotes as the "must-have" addition to their new lifestyle, signalling to others what they had achieved.

Trevor Mitchell, the regional director for planning and development at English Heritage, says: "A lot of them were never built to be functional. They were built as status symbols. It was like having a double garage with a gym over the top – it showed you had the money to be able to afford to rear and eat pigeons."

Mr Mitchell has two Yorkshire dovecotes on the English Heritage buildings at risk register.

One is at Hall Farm, Sharlston, near Wakefield, the other is at Tankersley, near Barnsley. Both are large stand-alone examples which fell into disrepair.

According to Alan Whitworth, the decline in building dovecotes that had a purpose can be traced back to the start of the trade routes to the West Indies. Here guano was cheap and plentiful and could be exported to Yorkshire's farmers as fertiliser by the ship-load.

About half of the 300 or so which remain in Yorkshire are free standing, others are holes built into the eaves of houses which allowed the doves or pigeons to go in and out. There are several of this type in the Halifax area.

Of the free-standing example, one of the best restored ones is at Letwell, near Rotherham, which is complete with a potence – a circular ladder which was used to collect the eggs from the pigeons.

Another good example is at Fawcett, near Richmond, where cattle sheltered in the base while the pigeons lived above.

One of the most interesting is at Conisbrough Castle. "It's got a beautiful keep, with eight turrets rising above the battlements, and one of them is a self-contained dovecote," says Mr Whitworth. "It's probably the oldest one in England."

He adds that although these buildings might seem like a footnote in rural architectural history they still matter because of what they can tell us. "They represent a part of agriculture which is long since gone, and as a consequence they're becoming more and more rare."

If you have any information about dovecotes please contact the Yorkshire Dales National Park's historic environment team on 01969 652300

Tracing Yorkshire Dovecotes

Yorkshire has a rich collection of Dovecotes.

One of the most interesting is at Letwell, near Rotherham. It has been beautifully restored and the revolving ladder, the potence, remains inside intact. The pigeons would enter through the holes in the semi-circular panels beneath the roof, and nest in boxes inside. It has won an award from the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

The stand-alone dovecote at Forcett Park, near Richmond, looks like it was intended more for decoration than for meat production. It was also handy for cattle to shelter under in bad weather.

Wheldrake had at least four at one time. This one is in the entrance to one of the farms.

At Barforth, the deserted medieval village has disappeared, but the remains of the dovecote survived. This design is called the beehive dovecote. It is common in Scotland and Cornwall.

At Topcliffe, this brick dovecote was once part of a farm, but it has since been converted into a house.