Our Story, Where It All Began...
‘Nothing pleases us more than receiving the numerous calls or emails that we get from fanciers reporting winners each year, be these from well-known fancier winning at the highest level or novices winning their first race. For us, each & every winner gives us the same pleasure’
After much consideration, in 2002, ‘Zwols Pigeons’ was formed.
‘Zwols Pigeons’ is jointly owned by John Gladwin & John Cowlin. We both race separately and our flying names are ‘Gladwin, Jarvis & Family’ & ‘John Cowlin’.
We have both been around pigeons all our life, in fact the Jarvis part of my flying name comes from my wife; Theresa’s maiden name, herself being a daughter of a pigeon fancier, who was also John Cowlin’s Grandfather. Hence the partnership of owning ‘Zwols Pigeons’.
At the time ‘Zwols Pigeons‘ was formed, its main purpose was to allow us to hopefully compete at the highest levels with the best fanciers.
At that time John Gladwin was only 26 and had two young children, a wife and a house to provide for, which did not leave much spare cash to be buying pigeons. John Cowlin was only 16 and just starting out in his working life, but we both knew that in order to compete in any sport you have to keep ahead of the game and have the best possible pigeons and bloodlines. So we knew the only way to do this long term was to buy the best we could, race the offspring and bred some to sell each year and put the money away to buy new birds when the time was right or the opportunities arose. The goal was to try and win more races and bred more winners for others. This is a pattern which we have followed ever since.
At ‘Zwols Pigeons‘ we have two main aims which are very simple.
1. To win each and every race we enter
2. Equally as important to us is to be able to breed first class pigeons which win or breed winners for others.
More Recently... Frans Zwol & Zwols Pigeons
To make sure our three main criteria’s are met, we spend a lot of time doing our homework on the seller before we buy. A practise we would recommend anyone buying pigeons to do.
So please check us out before you buy and please ask any questions you may have, about us and the birds or the calibre of the clubs we race in.
During the last few years, Zwols Pigeons’ have been very successful in meeting its aims and has not only have we won many races including Nationals, Combines, Amalgamations, Futurity and Gold Ring races ourselves but we have also bred hundreds of winners or breeders of winners for others, including winners in America and Asia, again right through to National, Combine and Amalgamation level.
When looking for new pigeons to add to our own team, we personally spend many hours looking for the best pigeons we can find, always keeping 3 main things in mind when we look at a family or line of pigeon.
- – Firstly, they must be from someone who wins in good competition and has done for a number of years.
- – Secondly, is that they are winning for others in many areas of the country or preferably the world.
- – Thirdly, we feel we can trust the person we are buying from.
‘Zwols Pigeons’ has grown and become more successful, allowing us to buy the very best pigeons around. This included buying the complete family of ‘Frans Zwols’ direct from Frans, including all his stock and race team when he retired from pigeons in late 2015.
Look and see the impact the ‘Frans Zwols’ have had in the U.K. in recent seasons and look at the winners not just at Club and Federation level but at all levels of racing.
At Club level we fly in the very strong ‘Hullbridge Club’. You will find weekly write ups in the BHW & RP magazines about The Hullbridge Club. Our Club flies with the ‘Thames North & Eastern Countie FC’ which boasts over 120 members and some of the finest fanciers in Essex and the surrounding areas. Again you can find weekly write ups about The Thames N&EC Club in the BHW & RP magazines.
Of course we also belong and send to the BICC, BBC, NFC and for 2019 we joined the UBI Combine.