I have a childhood memory of visiting a rural hotel in Scotland with my parents and grandfather. At the doorway of this hotel there was a talking parrot. I recall how delighted I was to find a talking bird!
The above headline is from the Biggleswade Chronicle of May 1939. However there has been a typographical error as Polly the Parrot did not die aged 109 years! She may have reached 19 years old, but even that is doubtful. Her owner Eddie Davies, of the Swan Hotel, Chester, seems to have been prone to exaggerate.
What follows is a timeline relating to Polly the Parrot:
Stapleford and Sandiacre News, 11 August 1934:
Biggleswade Chronicle, 5 May 1939:
Chester Chronicle, 9 December 1939:
Liverpool Echo, 13 December 1939:
A decade after Polly the parrot, her Landlord, Eddie Davies, died. Alas, like Polly, he did not live to be 109 years old:
