‘Singing Chickens’

‘Singing Chickens’ are very hard to find these days. I’ve come across ‘Singing Nuns’ and even ‘Singing Hinnies’ ......but chickens?.......

Until I remembered Strasbourg.

Now, in Strasbourg Museum they have the oldest ‘singing chicken’ in the world.

It is all that is left of the very first clock built for Strasbourg Cathedral in 1350.

All that is known of this clock, is that it was very large....over 38 feet high !

Two further replacement clocks have been built for the cathedral, but there are no remaining parts of this first clock ....except the ‘chicken‘.

It was actually referred to as “The Great Cock” and it sat on top of the clock and ‘sang’ every day at 12 noon.

At that time, it would open its beak, put out its tongue and flap its wings.

One of the engineering miracles of the bird, apart from the gearing and bellows, was that each separate primary feather on its wings, splayed out when the mechanism was working.  You can see the details in the bottom right of the above drawing.

There is no record of what it sang or indeed even sounded like.

After-thought One:      Singing Hinnies.

A Bakestone Cake using flour, butter, lard, currants, milk & sour cream.

‘The Singing Hinnie’ was so called as, when the butter and the cream melted during the baking it sizzled on the hot girdle and was thought to be singing.

After-thought Two:      The ‘Singing Nun’.

Belgium-born Jeannine Deckers shot to fame in 1963 when she released a song in order to raise money for her convent.

The song was entitled 'Dominique' after the 13th-century saint who founded her order. The track sold millions of copies worldwide and to this day she remains the only Belgian to have had a United States hit at number one. 

She never repeated her success and her life ended sadly with suicide, following her depression, poverty and addiction to alcohol and painkillers.