On This Day in Wembury — 12 November 1894
A pigeon-shooting match at Knighton
On 12 November 1894, the Western Morning News carried a small advertisement for a pigeon-shooting match at Knighton, Wembury, to be held two days later on Wednesday 14 November.
And yes — slightly startling to modern eyes — this meant shooting live pigeons.
In Victorian Britain, pigeon shooting was an established competitive sport. Birds were kept in traps or boxes and released one at a time in front of the competitors, who fired from a prescribed distance. Matches could involve prizes or sweepstakes and were conducted according to rules governing the shooting position, the release of the bird and whether a hit counted.
Knighton at the time was one of Wembury parish’s principal small settlements. In the late nineteenth century it consisted largely of cottages, farms, the forge, pub and other buildings strung along the lane leading towards West Wembury and the beach. Wembury Local History Society
A shooting match there would have been entirely in keeping with the rural sporting life of the period. Similar pigeon-shooting competitions were being held across Britain and elsewhere, often attracting spectators as well as competitors. Contemporary reports describe shooters standing at measured distances from the traps and competing over successive birds until winners could be decided. Longpull
The sport was already controversial, however. Even nineteenth-century writers debated whether releasing a captive bird simply to be shot could genuinely be regarded as sport, particularly when compared with shooting wild game. Scribd
That makes this tiny advertisement an unexpectedly vivid reminder of how much everyday attitudes have changed.
Today, seeing “Pigeon Shooting Match — Knighton, Wembury” in a village notice would cause rather more than mild curiosity. In 1894, it was apparently ordinary enough to merit only a few lines in the newspaper.
For an afternoon in November, somewhere around Knighton, men gathered with shotguns, traps and cages while live pigeons provided the targets.
It is one of those small pieces of Wembury history that feels considerably more distant than its 132 years.
Source: Western Morning News, Monday 12 November 1894.
On This Day in Wembury — 12 November 1895
The Duke of Coburg arrived in Plymouth as part of a visit to England. He was scheduled to shoot with leading Westcountry landowners including the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe at Mount Edgcumbe, the Earl of St Germans at Port Eliot, and Mr Cory at Langdon Court near Wembury.
At the time Langdon Court was owned by William Cory, a wealthy coal merchant and shipping magnate who had purchased the estate in 1876. Entertaining royalty was a mark of status, and hosting the Duke of Coburg placed Cory among the foremost society figures in Devon. Such country house shooting parties were an important part of aristocratic and landed social life in the late Victorian period, cementing ties between the royal family, the peerage, and successful industrialists.
Source Western Times, 1 November 1895
Entries are summaries and interpretations of historical newspaper reports.