The Sussexes show Oprah Winfrey their chicken coop
Credit: CBS
Prince Harry and Meghan are by no means the first members of the Royal family to show an interest in our feathered friends. Archie’s Chick Inn, in which Oprah Winfrey communed with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their brood of rescue fowl, is just the latest in a long line of illustrious hen coops.
Perhaps it’s a nod to the fresh Prince of California’s own past: Prince Charles is the Royal family’s most avid chicken keeper. Indeed, Highgrove is sometimes known as Cluckingham Palace. He is known to feed the hens and collect his own eggs for his breakfast at home each morning. He also hosts hen-husbandry courses there for the Poultry Club of Great Britain and oversees their content - with an emphasis, naturally, on organic farming and the welfare of animals.
writes Barry Shurlock. But a new investigation by a museum curator has come up with a completely different story. It turns out that it was in fact a British training aircraft which crashed near the pond after losing a flap and climbing vertically out of control. The pilot, who died in the crash, was in the process of obtaining his wings two months before the Battle of Britain. The sleuthing has been done by former Observer Lieutenant Neville Cullingford, who served for many years in the Royal Observer Corps and is now Honorary Curator of its Museum. Outlining his discoveries, he said: “I’ve always been fascinated by the story about the crash, which was thought to involve an enemy aircraft, as reported in the Echo in 1972. I started to ask local residents who had lived in the area during WWII if they had any recollections of this fighter crashing into Fisher’s Pond.