The Cottingley Fairies
In 1917 the below picture was taken of the Cottingley Fairies. This story has always fascinated me. I grew up not far from where this picture was taken and read about it (and saw the pictures) in a big, leather-bound book my mother had. It contained witches, ghosts, fairies, ufo’s. All sorts of weird and wonderful stories. A beautiful book full of magic and wonder. But this one always stood out.
The picture was taken by Elsie Wright and her cousin Frances Griffiths. They lived in Cottingley, near Bradford in England. At the time of the pictures being taken, Elsie was 16 and Frances just 9.
The story goes that the girls used to play by a stream at the bottom of the garden. This exasperated Elsie’s mother (Frances’ Aunt) because they always returned grubby and with wet shoes. When asked why they always had to play there, they answered that they only went to “see the fairies”. Which, of course, nobody believed.
However, Elsie’s father Arthur was a keen photographer, so undeterred, the girls borrowed his camera and set off to prove that what they said was true.
30 Minutes Later
They were back. Triumphant in their endeavour. Upon developing the first picture (the one you see above), Elsie’s father dismissed it as a prank using cardboard cut outs. Elsie’s mother however, was not so sure.
Two months later the girls again borrowed the camera and set off towards the stream. This time they returned with what purported to be Elsie sat in the grass, playing with a gnome about 30cm tall.
Arthur Wright was having none of it. He refused to believe the girls. And banned them from using his camera.
Elsie’s mother Polly on the other hand, was now convinced the pictures were real.
Public Showing
Polly Wright (Elsie’s mother) attended a meeting of the Bradford Theosophical Society in mid-1919. The talk there was on “fairy life” and at the end of the meeting, Polly resolved to show her pictures to the group.
It went well. It was decided that the pictures would be shown again at the society’s annual conference in Harrogate, a town in North Yorkshire. There they became known to a leading member of the society. A fellow by the name of Edward Gardener. One of the core beliefs of the group is that evolution cycles towards perfection. And in these pictures he believed lay the proof of that. Here’s a quote from him:
the fact that two young girls had not only been able to see fairies, which others had done, but had actually for the first time ever been able to materialise them at a density sufficient for their images to be recorded on a photographic plate, meant that it was possible that the next cycle of evolution was underway.
Although Gardner wanted to believe, he was no fool either. He had the original glass plate negatives sent away to an expert. One Harold Snelling. Who dutifully checked them over and pronounced them to be the genuine article. He could find no tampering with the plates and was confident that the figures seen were not cardboard cut-outs. Crucially, he did not go quite so far as to say that the pictures contained fairies. Only that “these are straight forward photographs of whatever was in front of the camera at the time”.
Gardner and Snelling then had new, higher quality negatives produced, which were better for printing copies of the pictures. Snelling then supplied the prints to Gardner to be sold at his lectures around the UK.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Not long after, prominent writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (best known for creating Sherlock Holmes) was commissioned to write a story about fairies for the Strand Magazine.
As a very prominent spiritualist, Doyle had learned of the existence of the Cottingley Fairies through the magazing Light. He was immediately enraptured with them.
He wrote to Gardner and to Elsie’s mother to ascertain whether he could use the pictures for his article. To which he received an enthusiastic “yes”. In fact, Arthur Wright even refused to accept any royalties on the pictures. He believed that if they were real, they should not be soiled by money and greed.
Conan Doyle immediately had the prints checked by Kodak. Who, just like Snelling, could find no evidence of them being faked.
Return to Cottingley
In 1920, Frances returned to Cottingley for the summer. Doyle sent Gardner to the Wrights with a camera. This camera had plates that had been secretly marked. They were determined to prove once and for all that the Cottingley Fairies existed.
Gardner describes this trip in his 1945 book, Fairies: A Book of Real Fairies.
I went off, to Cottingley again, taking the two cameras and plates from London, and met the family and explained to the two girls the simple working of the cameras, giving one each to keep. The cameras were loaded, and my final advice was that they need go up to the glen only on fine days as they had been accustomed to do before and tice the fairies, as they called their way of attracting them, and see what they could get. I suggested only the most obvious and easy precautions about lighting and distance, for I knew it was essential they should feel free and unhampered and have no burden of responsibility. If nothing came of it all, I told them, they were not to mind a bit.
It turned out to be a long wait. The weather was absolutely against them until the 19th of August. On that day, Elsie’s mother was persuaded to go for tea at her sisters. This was due to the girls insistence that the fairies would not come out with others watching.
And as luck would have it, they got another picture.
Truth be told, they got more than one. Shown above is “Fairy Offering Posy of Harebells to Elsie”. They also took a pictures of Frances with a leaping fairy and a couple of days later, the fifth and final picture, Fairies and their Sun-Bath.
The plates were carefully packed and shipped to Gardner in London. He informed Doyle (who was in Australia at the time) by telegram of their success.
Publication
The Strand article was published in December 1920 with two high resolution pictures. It immediately sold out.
But it was not quite the success hoped for. You see, Doyle as a spiritualist, had hoped that by proving the existence of fairies, people would accept other phenomena.
But early press covering was less than enthusiastic. Most journalists of the time dismissed the pictures as a child’s prank.
Major John Hall-Edwards was particularly savage in his criticism. Stating:
On the evidence I have no hesitation in saying that these photographs could have been “faked”. I criticize the attitude of those who declared there is something supernatural in the circumstances attending to the taking of these pictures because, as a medical man, I believe that the inculcation of such absurd ideas into the minds of children will result in later life in manifestations and nervous disorder and mental disturbances.
As a prominent figure who had pioneered X-ray treatments and a very keen photographer, his words carried weight.
Doyle, undeterred, published a second article in 1921. In this article he used the other 3 photographs. As was the case the first time around, it was met with scepticism.
Final Trip to Cottingley
Gardner made a final trip to Cottingley in 1921. He took with him noted occultist Geoffrey Hodson. Although the girls didn’t see any fairies and no pictures were taken of them, Hodson professed to seeing them “everywhere”.
After this visit, interest died down on the Cottingley Fairies, And that would have been it. A footnote in the local folklore of Bradford.
But a reporter for the Daily Express took an interest in the story and contacted Elsie in 1966. To them she admitted the fairies might have been a “figment of her imagination” but refused to admit they were faked. Interest rose again.
The BBC’s Nationwide programme investigated the case in 1971 but again Elsie stuck to her story.
And again in 1976 when interviewed by Yorkshire Television.
Confession
In 1983 the cousins finally came clean. An article published in The Unexplained held an interview with the now aging women. They admitted that they had copied drawings out of a popular children’s book “Princess Mary’s Gift Book” and then drew wings on them.
Despite the admission, they maintained that they really had seen fairies at Cottingley. And both disagreed that the fifth and final picture was a fake. It is reproduced below. Fairies and their Sun-Bath. Could this be the only picture ever taken of a real fairy?
Interviewed by Arthur C Clarke’s World of Strange Powers in 1985, Francis and Elsie tell their side of the story. You can watch the interview below.
Francis died in 1986 and Elsie in 1988. But their legacy lives on. So what’s the truth?
Personally, I’d say it’s healthy to have a dose of scepticism, but it’s also healthy to retain a child like wonder for the world. So it’s for you to decide what you believe. Could the fifth and final picture show the existence of fairies?
Sources:
Cottingley Fairies (Wikipedia)
The Coming of the Fairies (Archive.org)