The Cottingley fairies

 This is my view on the whole story of the Cottingley Fairies as this case has fascinated me since childhood. More than a century ago, two girls named Elsie Wright, aged 16, and Frances Griffiths, aged 9, who were cousins, took photographs of themselves posing with fairies. So mysterious and magical were they, that it got publicity. It attracted more fame when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author, physician and spiritualist) believed that the photos were authentic. For many years, the two girls maintained that the fairies were real, and they had seen them in the woods of Cottingley, England. Both girls grew up and drifted apart. The interest in the fairy photos went away. But decades later, Elsie and Frances were interviewed, still keeping to their story. In 1983 both women said the photos were faked although they had seen real fairies. Everyone was like "okay then" and that was the end of it! Or is it?

The fairies were made by Elsie, who drew figures copied from Princess Mary's Gift Book and added wings to them. Hatpins were used to stick onto the paper fairies. Once the photos were taken, the cardboard fairies were then thrown away. However, Frances said the fairies in one of the pictures were real. It was the fifth and last photo called "Fairies and their sunbath" that Frances said shows a group of true fairies. This does appear like the fairies are transparent and almost blended into the foliage. To see that picture visit Real Fairies HERE.  

Well these two cousins have gone down in history as fraudsters. Many interested in the paranormal and folklore think of Cottingley fairies with a lot of vitriol. I do have a problem with the "faked fairies" story that the girls came up with later in their lives. As a kid, I was inspired by this and tried making fairies the way Elsie and Frances did. Using just cardboard and scissors, I made such a mess. None of the fairies looked accurate, well done, realistic or cleverly cut as the fairies made by Elsie! My fairies had scissor damage and jagged edges! Trying to cut around tight corners, around delicate wings, hair and fingers was impossible. Only a professional using a laser can do this. 

And there are no hatpins appearing in the photos either. There was a significant amount of sunlight and these metallic hatpins were either invisible or the same camouflage colour as the background. At least one of the fairies was suspended in mid air! And these fairies, especially Elsie's gnome, are very three dimensional, catching light and shadow in the same way that it catches the girls in the photos. Now I can understand if these fairies were dolls but they were not, according to Elsie and Frances. When the cousins, both elderly women by the time they caved into the media and said the photos were faked, everyone stopped questioning, and accepted it as the end of the matter. To me, it proves that, even if the fairies in the pictures are really cardboard (somehow), then these girls are the most brilliant artists and photographers in modern history. 

She Wolf Night team