Pigeons

Pigeons were extremely important items of food in the Middle Ages, and up till the early twentieth century. Nowadays, they are kept more in the north than the south of England, and more by ‘fanciers’ for racing than for food. In the country, wild pigeons are shot and the best of the bag eaten, but few households keep them in cotes and kill them regularly for the table. However, they are readily available from most poulterers, though they may have to be ordered in advance.

In the Star Chamber Accounts of 1519 and 1520, they cost a penny each. In 1590 wild birds cost 2½d. each, and house pigeons 6d. At Ingatestone Hall, 20 pairs of pigeons formed part of the supper at Catherine Tyrell’s wedding in 1552, and the total killed that year from the great pigeon cote in the yard, between Easter and Michaelmas, was 1, 080.