Adrian had kept several pigeons since he was a child living in Barry, South Wales. He moved to Brecon in 1976 keeping 2 pigeons in a concrete shed in the garden. Adrian purchased a 12ft x 6ft loft with dowel fronts in 1977 and established a racing loft in the Uplands area in Brecon. He joined the Talgarth pigeon racing club soon after and begun competing weekly. In 1975 Adrian had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and had 3 operations. In 1979 a further operation was required but this time the operation didn't go as planned and left Adrian with severe disabilities. Adrian spent 5 months in hospital recovering, and during this time the up keep of the lofts were left to his wife Jannette and his friend, the well known and highly regarded Colin Hawker, from Talgarth.
Rasbull Lofts History
Following a semi successful operation to remove the brain tumor and a long hard fight to recovery, Adrian regained control of the lofts six months after the operation. A house move in 1982 saw the loft transferred to the current location in Brecon. The loft was assembled and was constantly upgraded during the next 10 years with help from his good friend Darrell Roderick.
Adrian continued to race pigeons during the 80's and early 90's achieving some creditable results on the South Road. A 1993 bred pigeon GB93T 06853 'Magicman' was the lofts most consistent performer and most decorated pigeon the old loft ever knew. This pigeon would score from the South of France on the South Road before being turned around and scoring from Scotland on the North Road. This particular cock competed in over 50 races for the lofts! Around the middle 1990's Adrian's health started to deteriorate and during this time his eldest son Richard took semi control of the loft when Adrian was constantly back and forth hospital battling his illness.
The pair formed a partnership during the 1997 season and began flying as A.Shepherd & Son. They competed on the North Road and again achieved some creditable results flying to possibly the most western loft location in the federation. Adrian passed away in 1999, and Richard continued to race the birds in the partnerships name. In 2000 the Talgarth club folded and Abergavenny was the chosen destination for the new club. The lofts only competed in 5 races, winning 1, before Richard moved away and the lofts were closed down and dismantled.
Richard moved back to the family home in Brecon in 2008, and the new loft currently sits on the redeveloped site of the old setup. It was deja vu for Darrell Roderick who had helped build the old loft some 25 years before and was once again called in to help! The lofts were one of, if not the most northern flying lofts in the Federation. The nearest club was the Gurnos Social Club in Merthyr Tydfil, some 20 miles away, which they joined for the 2009 Young Bird season. On restarting in the sport, the first thing Richard did was build a purpose designed loft.
Federation Trophy won by A.Shepherd & Son - 1st Federation, 3159 birds
In 2015, due to work commitments and an extremely poor loft location, Richard decided to change Rasbull Loft to a Specialist Breeding Loft with the intention of breeding quality racing pigeons capable of winning National and One Loft Races. A huge project was undertaken in December 2015 to convert the loft to a purpose built breeding loft.
In 2016, a significant amount of money was invested into new stock birds. Only top sons and daughters from some of Europe's best fanciers were acquired. The youngsters bred from our selected stock pairs were sent out to several lofts to test the youngsters out in the very best competition. Any pairings that failed to produce quality youngsters were removed from the loft regardless of cost.
2017 saw the creation of our test loft program throughout South Wales with birds being sent out each year to be tested. Results have improved year on year and with a very strict stock retention policy, results increased dramatically. 2019 was a fantastic year where the loft achieved its aim of breeding a National winner!
In 2019 Rasbull Lofts bred 8 x 1st Club winners, 2 x 1st Federation winners, 1st Combine and 1st National which was raced by our test loft of Mr and Mrs Winder! Rasbull Maximus the National winning pigeon also won the coveted JO Davies Cup (Best Young in Wales 2019)
2019 also saw Richard's son Finley become heavily involved with the pigeons and his interest in the birds grew daily. He is pictured below with Mr and Mrs Winder with their haul of trophies won during 2019!
Results 2017-2022
(Test Loft Results Only)
29 x 1st, 24 x 2nd, 27 x 3rd, 25 x 4th, 12 x 5th, 14 x 6th Club
6 x 1st, 2 x 2nd, 4 x 3rd, 2 x 4th, 4 x 5th, 2 x 6th, 4 x 7th, 2 x 8th, 9th, 8 x 10th, 2 x 11th, 7 x 12th, 3 x 13th, 4 x 14th, 4 x 15th, 2 x 16th, 17th, 2 x 18th, 19th, 20th, 2 x 21st, 4 x 22nd, 2 x 23rd, 2 x 24th, 2 x 25th, 26th, 4 x 28th, 2 x 30th, 33rd, 38th, 39th Federation
5 x 1st, 4 x 2nd, 3 x 3rd, 3 x 4th, 5th, 3 x 7th, 3 x 9th, 10th, 11th, 2 x 12th, 2 x 13th, 15th, 16th, 3 x 17th, 18th, 3 x 20th, 2 x 21st, 25th, 2 x 26th, 28th, 30th Section National
3 x 1st, 2nd, 2 x 4th, 2 x 9th, 4 x 10th, 12th, 3 x 13th, 14th, 17th, 2 x 20th, 22nd, 25th, 2 x 27th, 29th, 30th, 2 x 33rd, 39th, 41st, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 48th, 52nd, 55th, 3 x 56th, 58th, 62nd, 63rd, 64th, 66th, 70th, 2 x 71st, 73rd, 77th, 81st, 83rd, 87th National
WHU JO Davies Cup (Best Young Bird in Wales 2019)
Rhondda Valley Federation Bird of the Year 2019
After the 2022 season we stopped logging all test loft results as there were simply to many to record. 2023-2025 saw works commitments take its toll on the amount of time allocated to the birds with a reduction in the amount of birds housed. Only the principle breeders were retained in readiness for a renewed breeding program aimed at breeding One Loft Race winners. Moving forward this is the main aim of the loft. We are confident the stock birds have proven themselves and the gene pool is strong enough to have confidence in entering One Loft Races all over the world.
So it continues......
In 2013, One of the biggest moments which has shaped our history came when a pigeon called Rasbull Semtex was purchased from Andrew Evans. This cock set the loft on a new path and his genes formed the basis of our breeding loft for years to come. This cock filled the loft with winners and the whole breeding program was based around him. His children, grandchildren, great grandchildren have continued to breed and pass their genes on for generations to come.
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