Monks Risborough Dovecote and Church

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 30 Mar 2008

The dovecote is thought to date from the 16th century, and was originally a building on Place Farm, which was demolished in the 1970s for housing development. Dovecotes were built by landowners to house rock pigeons. The pigeons would breed between April and October and the young birds, called squabs, would be taken when about four weeks old to be cooked and eaten. The design of dovecotes has always tried to appeal to pigeons and to discourage birds of prey, although modifications were sometimes needed to cope with the later threat posed by brown rats which could burrow into dovecotes and attack nests close to the ground. This particular dovecote was constructed of chalk and originally would have had about 200 nestboxes. (Notes loosely transcribed, with thanks, from the nearby information board written by the Princes Risborough Area Heritage Society.) Image is in the background. From a cartographic point of view the dovecote somewhat surprisingly merits its own pale orange "building" on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale mapping.

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