Pigeon racing clubs in Pas-de-Calais, France, 1870–1914

The history and geography of sports in nineteenth- and twentieth-century France have been studied intensively during the last thirty years but one sport – that of pigeon racing – has received virtually no attention. This paper ventures into a largely unexplored field. After describing briefly the general history of homing pigeons and the specific geography of pigeon racing clubs in France in 1890, it focuses on the département of Pas-de-Calais in northern France. Pas-de-Calais and the adjacent département of Nord together accounted for more than half of the just over 400 pigeon racing clubs identified in France in 1890. Within the context of the rapid development between 1870 and 1914 of its population, society and economy (and especially its coalmining industry), Pas-de-Calais saw the creation of more than one thousand recreational societies, especially sports clubs, among them numerous pigeon racing clubs. Three hundred pigeon racing clubs in one of the département's six arrondissements – that of Béthune – are examined closely from surviving but fragmentary sources. The aims, names, membership and racing activities of these societies are studied from their unpublished records. They are shown to have developed in close association with the growth of coalmining communities and in particular with the role of Belgian immigrants in those communities. ► A pioneering paper on the history of pigeon racing clubs in Pas-de-Calais 1870–1914. ► Shows clubs linked to communities on the coalfield and to immigrants from Belgium. ► A significant examination of a neglected nineteenth-century French leisure pursuit.