Fog It Blog It, By Chicken I’ve Cracked It!

Halloween Tales From Spooky London Pond Square.

As it is ‘Shocktober we thought today we’d bring you a story from bizarre spooky London. So heading off to Pond Square, Highgate we will recount the story of the ghostly chicken. Sir Francis Bacon, (1561-1626) was a politician, a writer and a philosopher who also dabbled in some well, unusual scientific experiments when he wasn’t hamming it up. He was a pioneer in the theory that refrigeration might be used as a means of preserving meat. On a bitterly cold January morning in 1626, Bacon decided to put his theory to the test by purchasing a chicken, having it slaughtered and plucked. He then proceeded to stuff its carcass with snow. Opps looks like this chicken just got a licking. Such a fowl way to die! Ironically Sir Francis Bacon caught a severe chill as a result of his experiment and was taken to nearby Arundel House (a poultry excuse for a hospital) where he was placed in a damp bed and he died shortly afterwards from suffocation. Ever since then, there have been frequent reports of a phantom bird, resembling a plucked chicken, that appears from nowhere and races round the square in frantic circles, flapping its wings and noiselessly clucking away. What is a haunted chicken called? A poultry-geist! Terence Long was crossing Pond Square late at night in 1943 when he heard the sound of horses hooves and the low rumble of carriage wheels. Suddenly, a loud raucous shriek, split the silence, and the ghostly chicken appeared before him. It then proceeded to run frantically around and then vanished into thin air. In the 1960’s a motorist whose car had broken down encountered the same apparition. Fearful that the bird may be harmed and in need of help he approached it, only to have it disappear when he turned away. A courting couple in the 1970’s, had their ‘peck’ on the cheek interrupted by the chicken who suddenly dropped from above landing next to them. In recent years, however, sighting of the featherless phantom have been few and far between and it might just be possible that its restless spirit has finally ’gone to the light, and accepted it’s part in the scientific breakthrough for which it gave its life. Cluck , cluck where did I pluck this from, is it a load of cock & bull I hear you say? Finger lickin good!

Who is in the Spooky Gallery today (last tab on the right)? To be spookified leave a comment over at Mollie & Alfie!

Oh and we got an award from the lovely Keisha. We say a BIG thank you.