BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



een feet square and over thirty feet in height. 

 It was at one time even higher, having a tiled 

 roof and loft. The present roofing material is 

 — horribile dicht — corrugated iron, surely the 

 last indignity that such a building can be called 

 upon to bear. The walls are three feet thick, 

 the doorway noticeably small. About one thou- 

 sand nest-holes still remain, rising from the 

 ground level to the roof At Coalport and 

 Broseley we are getting into the brick- and tile- 

 making district of Shropshire, and it is there- 

 fore more interesting than surprising to see 

 that the bricks used for the nests were speci- 

 ally moulded for the purpose. 



As Herefordshire at Mansel Lacy, so Shrop- 

 shire in more than one instance exhibits accom- 

 modation for pigeons fashioned in the fabric of 

 the dwelling-house itself. This is so at Tickler- 

 ton Hall, a house built near Much Wenlock in 

 the reign of Charles I.; where, in addition to 

 a square dovecote, there are pigeon-holes in 

 one of the house-walls. At the Woodhouse, a 

 small dwelling of Jacobean period in Wyke, a 

 dovecote exists in the attic gable. Finally, at 

 Hungerford, lying between Ludlow and Mun- 



78 



