Fowl noise leads to court: Neighbour seeks to end Corky's dawn chorus

A COACHLOAD of villagers attended a court yesterday to back the owner of a cockerel in her legal battle for him to be allowed to crow.

Margerie Johns, 53, of Stoke, north Devon, is defending an action at Taunton county court by John Ritchings, her neighbour, who is seeking an injunction to stop her cockerel, Corky, causing a noise nuisance.

Most of the 50 residents of Stoke yesterday took a special bus to the court where Judge Malcolm Cotterill is hearing the two-day case.

Mr Ritching, a former personnel director, told the court how Mrs Johns installed the cockerel in a new chicken run in the spring of 1991. He had built his house in 1978 before moving there in 1984.

He said at first he did not complain about the new run, out of good neighbourliness, but the noise became intolerable. 'The cock would wake us as early as 3.30 in the morning,' he said.

Mr Ritchings denied being a town dweller. He said he had lived in the country for some time. 'The difference is that nobody else has put a cock outside my bedroom window and allowed it to be treated in an uncontrolled manner before.

'I am not stopping the countryside and not stopping nature so long as the cock crows somewhere else where it doesn't cause a nuisance,' he said.

The hearing continues today.