CONTINUED SUCCESS AT THE EXTREME DISTANCE...

A LOFT PROFILE ON THE PADFIELD FAMILY OF CWMTILLERY

by Gareth Watkins

Anyone who has studied the results of the long distance races of the Welsh South Road NFC; CSCFC; BBC; BICC or NFC over the past twenty or so years will have noticed the name of Padfield of Cwmtillery featuring with monotonous regularity. Until 2005 the partnership consisted of father Albert, aided by his two sons Vince and Dave. Unfortunately, Albert passed away in August 2005 and Vince and Dave have continued the family tradition of winning long distance races in his honour, culminating in their latest excellent performance of 1st Gwent Greater Distance Club 14th Open BICC Barcelona in 2007. In this race the Padfield timer was to be the longest flying pigeon on the result also the furthest west in a race that saw the European convoy, and the British entries in particular, having to face a strong westerly wind for most of the 700 mile journey from north eastern Spain.

View from the loft accross valley to the west.

Dave Padfield.

The eleveated lofts.

The former mining village of Cwmtillery is situated in a narrow offshoot of the main valley near Abertillery, Monmouthshire. The mines have now all closed and the working population commute daily to Newport and Cardiff. The Padfield loft like so many other valleys lofts, is situated on the hillside above Vince’s home. The location enjoys a lovely view across and down the valley to the west and when the birds take to the air they are immediately hundreds of feet above the valley floor. I first visited the Padfields in the mid 1990s and nothing much has changed as far as the lofts, birds or performances are concerned – they are all still of the highest standard.

The 2007 Barcelona cock.

The loft is a 36ft x 12ft five sectioned structure built and maintained in immaculate condition by Vince. Four sections house the 30 pairs of old bird racers and at one end there is an 8ft x 12 ft section for the 80 or so young birds reared each year. This section also has a large aviary attached and it is here that the young birds spend most of the day light hours.

The old bird racers and 25 pairs of stock birds are mated on or around 20th February. The racers are allowed to rear a pair of babies and sit their second round eggs for 10 days before being separated. They then go onto the roundabout system for most of the inland programme and early channel races. Each section of racers is then re-paired for specific channel races. The stock birds only rear one or perhaps two rounds of youngsters and are then placed on pot eggs for the remainder of the summer before separation in early August.

The Don.

Vince and Dave like the young bird team to be brought along steadily but do like them to, as they put it, “have a look at the channel” in their first year. Yearlings are raced through to 300 miles and two year olds and over go to Pau if fit and all other points south through to Barcelona 758 miles. Whilst on the roundabout system, the cocks and hens are exercised twice daily for 60 minutes on each occasion. The birds have access to large 3ft x 4ft nest boxes and the hens are boxed up throughout the day except when at exercise. The old bird racers have access to a mixture of beans, peas and tares at all times and are also fed a titbit made up by the brothers to encourage them to trap and bring them into top condition for the longer races.

The use of these tried and tested methods has brought the partners continued success over many years especially in long distance classic races.

Padfield Perfection, 1st, 3rd & 39th Nat Pau.

I won’t go into great detail here but can give as example the partners’ record from Pau. They are the only loft in Wales to win the National on three occasions and in addition have many other top ten finishes to add to this impressive list of outright wins. Yet another outstanding performance was achieved from Palamos when they clocked their dark pied Wim Muller cock “The Don” to be 2nd Open BBC. The list goes on and on.

Wim Muller stock cock.

The main bloodlines now housed are the Jan Aarden based Wim Mullers which were initially introduced in 1992. This strong base is augmented by some of the “old family” based on Morgan & Cook and Clerebaut bloodlines. The birds are mainly dark chequers and white flights with the occasional blue and pied. In addition to the above bloodlines Vince and Dave have introduced selective pigeons of similar Jan Aarden lines via Louella including the highly successful “Invincible Spirit” lines. The present gene pool has proved extremely profitable, not only for the Padfields, but also for many other fanciers who have obtained these bloodlines from them .Latest news is that Ronin Brisson of Brest in north west France wins 22nd Open Perpignan 2007 with one out of an inbred grand son of the aforementioned “The Don”.

Vince's Choice, 1st Nat Pau.

Finally, we come to the reason for my latest visit to Cwmtillery - the winner of the 2007 GGDC race from Barcelona. This is a three year old blue cock which carries the very best of the “Invincible Spirit” and Wim Muller bloodlines. Mated in late February with the rest of the team, he reared a pair of youngsters before going onto the roundabout system. He raced in some of the early season inland races before being hawked, having most of his secondaries in one wing stripped away. Rested for a short while, he was then entered in a couple of the early BICC channel races before being re-mated and sent to Barcelona sitting due to hatch. The rest, as they say, is history as he was clocked at 4.45 pm on the third afternoon having faced a strong west wind for the previous two days. A conservative estimate would be that he covered nearer 1,000 miles rather than the 758 miles he was credited with having flown. He handled similarly to the other Padfield pigeons, being just on medium sized with a little depth to the keel to the front and with superb silky feathering. His ordeal certainly didn’t appear to have hurt him such was his condition on handling some two weeks later.

Congratulations Vince and Dave on yet another excellent long distance performance and my thanks to Jean Padfield, Vince’s better half, for the hospitality shown us and the delicious home made fruit cake we enjoyed on our visit.