Ryhope, Western Hill, pigeon cree

HER Number:
7186

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Ryhope, Western Hill, pigeon cree

Place:
Ryhope

Map Sheet:
NZ45SW

Class:
Agriculture and Subsistence

Site Type: Broad:
Agricultural Building

Site Type: Specific:
Dovecote

General Period:
Modern

Specific Period:
C20

Form of Evidence:
Structure

Description:
Pigeon cree C20. Weatherboarded with monopitch roof. At present painted red, black and white. Single storey. 5 windows with 3 doors in-between. Small extension to left. Above the central door is a small gable with a row of upstanding perches all along the front. Lynn Pearson - probably the most celebrated pigeon loft in Britain. Located on an allotment behind the Blue Bell Inn on Back Ryhope Street. The cree was built in 1955 by Maurice Surtees and his brother William, using timber taken from colliery cottages that were being demolished nearby. It is painted red, white and blue. The birds return through sliding doors. There are 'spikes' (like a picket fence) on the roof to deter birds from landing on the roof rather than heading straight inside. The cree was the first and thus far only cree to be listed in 1998. Meercat Films made a film about the cree in 2008 called 'The Homing Instinct'.LISTED GRADE 2

Easting:
404

Northing:
531

Grid Reference:
NZ404531

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 920-1/7/10015; Lynn Pearson, 2010, Played in Tyne and Wear - charting the heritage of people at play, pp 154-155