The man I’m writing about his Monty Buxton from Denby, Derbyshire. Brother Ron and myself visited Monty at his beautiful home to do a write-up on his performances. His house stands on the top of a hill just outside Denby village, with the pigeon lofts behind with fantastic views over the valleys in every direction.
When leaving school in the 1950s, Monty started work in a factory, but the noise and being inside was not for him;, he loved being outside so went to work on a farm, which he loved, but most of his pals were earning big money in the local pits, so down the pit he went. The work was hard, but the money was good, and hours were much shorter than on the farm. Working shifts, he decided he could start a chimney sweeping round, which expanded very quickly, so he took on a partner, who also worked in the pit. Although the work was very, very hard the money was good. Monty said his hands had callouses upon callouses on them.
Before pigeons his passion was for motorbikes, which he raced at Silverstone, putting up some fantastic performances. This was in 1961, 62 and 64 when he rode a Manx Norton in the 350 and 500 class, holding the lap record for 3 years. He competed for Geoff Duke in a 9 hour race along with John Hartell, another Derbyshire lad from Chapel-en-le Frith, and they won 2nd position.
Having had a motorbike accident, and having to have time off work, he was talking with a friend, an ex-miner from the next village Swanwick, who ran a market stall and was invited to help him at the market. He could see this wasn’t the hard manual work as in the pit and chimney sweeping, although long hours, so this was his next business venture and he gave his notice in at the pit.
Monty then decided to sell his chimney sweeping business for £50 and with the money, went to purchase ladies cardigans. He was soon doing very well as a market trader, going down to London and buying at the right price top ladies fashions for the local markets. All this of course was a big gamble, but with having to have time off work after his accident he realised that he and his family had managed alright.
Every good man has to have a good lady behind him, and that is Sheila his wife (congratulations, last week they celebrated 52 years of marriage). They had three sons - Michael, Andrew and David. So working hard and doing well on the markets, Monty and Sheila, well Sheila actually, was persuaded by a friend to look at a house which she had seen. Sheila immediately fell in love with the property. At the time, Monty was busy at a market in Wales, and on his arrival home, Sheila told him they were moving house, to which he replied, “we are not” or words to that effect, but he was then persuaded by Sheila to at least have look. He did and after a few days, found himself doing detours to come past this house on his way home from markets. He couldn’t get this house out of his mind and within a few days he made an offer, which was accepted, and the house was theirs.
His interest in pigeons began when his eldest son Michael and his father-in-law Fred started with pigeons. Monty purchased 6 birds for them, these were Cattryse and unfortunately in a storm the roof blew off the loft and 4 were lost. The two which didn’t go bred their first winners, one of which was 5th section 50th open Midlands National from Picauville and £175.
In 1972 Monty took a real interest in pigeons and the partnership was then formed under the name Monty Buxton and Co, the name he races under today. Once again eager to learn about pigeons, he decided to go to one of the top men in the West Midlands at the time, namely Harold Hamplett, from whom he purchased 8 pigeons. He also listened and learned a lot from Harold.
The business continued to expand and eldest son Michael worked with Monty running the businesses, opening 7 shops in Derbyshire towns, as well running the market stalls. A terrible tragedy happened 13 years ago for Monty, Sheila and family with the sudden death of eldest son Michael at the very young age of 36 years. Finding the courage to pick up the pieces, Monty and Sheila have put their lives back together, helped by their loving family and friends, and their grandchildren.
Today Monty describes himself as semi-retired. They have just the one fashion shop in Ripley, but Andrew still runs the markets, and Sheila helps out part time in the shop when needed. Today Monty puts most of his time into his pigeons. He loves the social side, visiting places like the Kassell show, Holland, going to moots, always learning and having a good laugh. But he is very serious when it comes to racing, only sending a small team, and he usually picks the pool birds. He loves to go over to Holland, with his good pal John Wheatcroft just for the ride to keep John company and sometimes to purchase only top birds. At the moment he has: Piet Valks, Gerard and Piet Lindelaufs, Martha Vinks, mostly Janssen based birds.
He is a member of the Horsley Woodhouse Club and the Heanor & District Club, both of which are on the south road, and his main club is Heanor where until 2009 he has been the highest prize every year. He now uses the clubs for training for the nationals and is concentrating more on the Midlands National and the North Midlands Continental Club having won most things at club level. In the last two seasons with a pigeon named “Double Gold”, he has won the North Midlands CC breeder/buyer and12th open 812 birds Picauville 253 miles, winning £1650 and two gold medals. Once again Monty new that this was the pigeon to buy at a local breeder/buyer sale having done his homework on the man selling the youngster, Matt Cotton of Brinsley, Notts, who had purchased some top class Lindelaufs from Holland, and this was bred from them.
The racing system Monty uses is full widowhood flying both cocks and hens. Only 8 hens are raced and once again he has learnt from one of the best at racing hens, Piet Valk of Holland, who wins the big birdage races mostly with widowhood hens.
One of the highlights of last season was racing from Lessay (262 miles) in two feds, the Derby Burton Fed and the Notts and Derby Fed, on the same day, when two birds arrived together, a chequer Lindelauf cock and a Lindelauf x Piet Valk blue hen, and they both topped the two federations. What a great performance.
The photos show Monty holding his two fed toppers, the cheq cock and blue hen. Another super performance was sending 3 birds to the Midlands National from Picauville (253 miles) with two arriving together in a very hard race. Monty is not a big team flyer, he prepares certain birds for the big occasion. This is why they are nearly always pooled, only sending a few in top condition right for the job. In my opinion a real pigeon fancier, not relying on a big team.
These are just a few of the federation and MNFC results over the last few seasons: 2nd Lessay Derbyshire Two Bird Championship Club. 1st DBSRF Lessay 623 birds. 3rd DBSRF Lessay, 623 birds. 16th DBSRF Windrush, 786 birds. 13th DBSRF Windrush 982 birds. 16th DBSRF Windrush 982 birds. 2nd Saintes Horsley Woodhouse Club. 5th DBSRF Kingsdown, 1068 birds. 6th DBSRF Kingsdown, 1068 birds. 1st DBSRF Wincanton, 1380 birds. 20th DBSRF Kingsdown, 1068 birds. 16th DBSRF Kingsdown 1254 birds. 3rd DBSRF St Malo. 637 birds. 17th DBSRF Wincanton, 1380 birds. 7th DBSRF Wincanton 1380 birds. 3rd DBSRF Wincanton, 1380 birds. 4th DBSRF Wincanton 1380 birds. 3rd DBSRF Kingsdown, 1637 birds. 4th DBSRF Kingsdown, 1637 birds. 5th DBSRF Hullavington, 1809 birds. 6th DBSRF Hullavington 1809 birds. 1st NDBF Blandford 2259 birds. 11th NDBF Portsmouth 1412 birds. 4th DBSRF Hullavington, 879 birds. 2nd DBSRF Fourgeres, 715 birds. 2nd DBSRF Kings Down 1164 birds. 4th NDBF Salisbury, 2362 birds. 6th NDBF Salisbury, 2362 birds. 13th NDBF Windrush, 3020 birds. 1st Derbyshire Two Bird Championship Club Picauville, 40 birds. 2nd D2BCC Falaise, 36 birds. 2nd D2BCC Falaise, 60 birds. 3rd NDBF Newton Abbott, 563 birds. 7th NDBF Salisbury, 2507 birds. 1st NDBF Lessay, 1594 birds.
It was a real pleasure to visit Monty. He enjoys life to the full, but will always help others. Last season the Gaunt family, Larry, Kevin and Michael, had some bad luck with their youngsters and had do away with quite a few. On hearing this, Monty gave them 11 to race, of which one won 3 first prizes.
