Researching the history of dovecotes
For
centuries doves and pigeons were a valuable source of meat, manure and feathers
for mattresses. In the Middle Ages only manorial
lords could keep these birds, so the few remaining medieval dovecotes are
connected with manor houses, castles, parsonages or
former monastic sites. The laws relaxed after
about 1600, so many later farms had dovecotes, until
their use declined after the 18th century.
A note on terminology: a dovecote or pigeon house may appear in English-language documents as a culverhouse, in Scots as a doocot and in Latin as a columbarium.
Nesting-boxes could be built into Norman castles. The later castle at Westenhanger has a dovecote tower, restored in recent years. Nesting-boxes can also be found above granaries or other farm buildings or even in parish churches, such as Compton Martin, Somerset.
Free-standing dovecotes are more common though. Medieval ones were usually round and massively built in stone. The circular plan enabled squabs (young doves or pigeons) to be collected from the nesting-boxes by a ladder attached to a revolving pole with arms, known as a potence. Examples survive at Dunster, Somerset (St. George's Church) and Kinwarton, Warwickshire (National Trust). Usually the roof was the conical type shown above, with a louvered turret at the apex and perhaps louvered dormers. However in Wales and the far west of England, dovecotes could have a domed stone roof, such as the Knights Templar dovecote in Garway, Herefordshire, built in 1326.
If dovecotes were timber-framed, they had to be square, rectangular or polygonal. With a little ingenuity, potences could still be used within some of these, for example the polygonal dovecote at Erddig, Wrexham, Clwyd (National Trust). Brick began to be used in the 16th century and lent itself to a variety of shapes, though a round plan remained popular.
Though they may appear picturesque to modern eyes, dovecotes were functional buildings, almost always built in vernacular styles using local materials. However some of the later ones, particularly those belonging to large country houses, were consciously designed to be a feature in the landscape. Like other late Georgian garden features, they could be in any style that took the owner's fancy, such as the mock-Gothic tower of Mounthooly Doocot, Aberdeenshire.
Studies and gazetteers
- Ariss, P., The dovecotes of Gloucestershire, Journal of the Historic Farm Buildings Group, vol. 6 (1992), 3-34.
- Beacham, M.J.A., Dovecotes in England: an introduction and gazetteer, Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, vol. 34, (1990), 85-131. Based on published material.
- Beaton, E., Doocots of Caithness (Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group 1980).
- Beaton, E., Doocots of Moray(Moray Field Club 1978).
- Cooke, A.O., Book of Dovecotes (1920), annotated by Helen Bresler. Covers England, Scotland and Wales. Includes bibliography.
- Davis, E.M., Dovecotes of south Cambridgeshire, Proceedings of the Cambridgeshire Antiquarian Society, vol.75 (1986),68-89.
- Dunn, M. et al., Doocots of Scotland: Lanarkshire (Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group 2006).
- Gillon, J., Doocots in Scotland, Context no. 57 (March 1998). Liberally illustrated article.
- Hansell, P. and J., Doves and Dovecotes (1988).
- Jeevar, P., Dovecotes of Cambridgeshire (1977).
- Lloyd, G., Flintshire dovecotes, Flintshire Historical Society Publications (1966), 78-82.
- McCann, J., An historical enquiry into the design and use of dovecotes, Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, vol. 35, (1991).
- McCann, J., The Dovecotes of Suffolk (Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History 1998).
- McCann, J., Two more Dovecotes of Suffolk, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, vol. 40(4) (2004), 460-465.
- McCann, J., Dovecotes and pigeons in English law, Transactions of the Ancient Monument Society, vol. 44 (2000), 25-50.
- McCann, J. and P., The Dovecotes of Historical Somerset (Somerset Vernacular Building Research Group 2004).
- Peterkin, G.A.G., Scottish Dovecotes (1980).
- Roberts, S., Dovecotes in the grand manner, Country Life, vol. 161 (1977), 322-3.
- Severn, J., Dovecotes of Nottinghamshire (1986).
- Spandl, K., Exploring the round houses of doves, British Archaeology, no 35, (June 1998). Includes a list of dovecotes open to the public in England and Wales.
- Stainburn, I. R., A Survey of Dovecotes in the Old County of Herefordshire (1979).
- Whitworth, A., A Concise Bibliography of Dovecotes and Pigeon Lofts (1986).
- Whitworth, A., Dorset Dovecotes (1988).
- Whitworth, A., Yorkshire dovecotes and pigeon lofts: a preliminary survey, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 65 (1993), 75-89.
Primary sources
In general see under the type of building the dovecote belonged to.
The British Dovecote Society has deposited research material, photographs and printed material dating from c.1920-99 in Reading University's Museum of English Rural Life.