Speaker 1: Welcome to ouch. Was That a Ghost? This podcast may
Speaker 1: contain graphic material which some listeners may find disturbing. Listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. Is advised me? Now that we covered that,
Speaker 1: here's your host list.
Speaker 2: Welcome back out? Was That a Ghost?
Speaker 3: With Liz and I'm Maddy, Maddy my co host It
Speaker 3: creep it weird?
Speaker 4: Yeah, keeping it down home, all down home, say you're
Speaker 4: from the Midwest. About saying you're from the Midwest, I
Speaker 4: can't believe those words just came out of my face.
Speaker 3: I wanted to look up that ker you were talking
Speaker 3: about before, and I never did.
Speaker 2: Is whish, isn't it? That is the best game ever.
Speaker 2: It's way better than poker.
Speaker 3: Well, Poker's kind of boring. I like Texas hold'em Ucher's better.
Speaker 3: And I actually blew off a game tonight to do
Speaker 3: a recording with you. Mike, if you're listening, This wasn't
Speaker 3: your birthday game. This was the day after. That was
Speaker 3: yesterday that I blew you off.
Speaker 4: We were just letting all the one of the dirty lawns,
Speaker 4: all the dirty laundr fly.
Speaker 2: We're just empty in that hamper.
Speaker 3: All right. So today I'm covering the Cottingly Fairies. Fairies
Speaker 3: are supernatural beings from folklore, often depicted as magical, human
Speaker 3: like creatures with extraordinary abilities and a close connection to
Speaker 3: nature in the spirit world. Their origin story is derived
Speaker 3: from mythology and folklore. They're said to exist between the
Speaker 3: human and the spirit world or nature spirits. Some say
Speaker 3: their remnants of races thought to be extinct. I am
Speaker 3: going to do a full episode on fairies one day,
Speaker 3: but this is just for people that don't know what
Speaker 3: fairies are.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have to break it up.
Speaker 3: There's there's too much.
Speaker 4: There's so much information surrounding fairies that you would have
Speaker 4: to break it down to like the classes of fairies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm just saying this is not a full
Speaker 3: faery episode. This is just about the Cottingly Fairies, Okay.
Speaker 3: Cottingley is a village I've seen in the city of
Speaker 3: Bradford district of Yorkshire, England, and some say it's a
Speaker 3: village near the city of Bradford, so I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: Their titles are so long. It's like in the village
Speaker 3: of the Providence of.
Speaker 4: The of the castle, beyond the tree line of this
Speaker 4: behind that third row of grass.
Speaker 3: But they sound so fancy when they say it.
Speaker 4: I know it's the accent, is that it not that
Speaker 4: say accent makes the accent makes everything sound fancy.
Speaker 3: I feel like they should have a town crier giving
Speaker 3: out everyone's address.
Speaker 4: I'm sure they could say dirty butthole and it would
Speaker 4: still sound fancy.
Speaker 3: Bloody, dirty butthole. That's a terrible I'm probably gonna.
Speaker 2: Come So I okay.
Speaker 4: I used to know a guy and literally I would
Speaker 4: only talk to him because of his accent.
Speaker 3: Oh, I've had that before and I'd be like.
Speaker 2: Say this, say that and he would do it. I'm
Speaker 2: like yeah, So I was like, that is awesome. They're
Speaker 2: so funny when they cuss, it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: And they're always mad. Yeah, but I know they're always
Speaker 3: mad about everything. That's like it's Irish, Like with the Brogue, it's.
Speaker 2: Like the opposite of Canada.
Speaker 3: Anti Canada, always pissed of the world. But it's funny.
Speaker 2: That's just it.
Speaker 3: I think that's just their that's their baseline. I think
Speaker 3: is just pissed. So I'm afraid to see him really pissed. Anyway,
Speaker 3: there goes all the British listeners and Irish Yes.
Speaker 2: Sorry, Britain.
Speaker 3: So what we're gonna talk about today is probably one
Speaker 3: of Cottingly's most well known events from that village, the
Speaker 3: time that some young girls got photos of fairies.
Speaker 4: I know a lady who has photos of fairies that
Speaker 4: I've seen them and they are legit.
Speaker 2: Oh really like legit. You zoom in, it's like it's
Speaker 2: a little person in a ball of light. It is insane.
Speaker 3: You gotta show them to me.
Speaker 2: Well, I was at an event that I was at.
Speaker 3: That's freaking awesome.
Speaker 4: I'm sure I probably have her business cards somewhere. It's
Speaker 4: pretty intense.
Speaker 3: But it's widely believed that children, maybe because they're less
Speaker 3: jaded by the world, or just being less skeptical overall,
Speaker 3: or maybe because they're more in tune with their imagination
Speaker 3: pre adult life. They don't have bills or guests like
Speaker 3: you know, so they're thought to be more likely to
Speaker 3: see fay are fairies than adults. So back in the
Speaker 3: summer of nineteen seventeen, nine year old Francis Griffiths, her
Speaker 3: father was away in the military, so Francis and her
Speaker 3: mother moved in with her cousin's family and coddingly, do
Speaker 3: you get that I got that like her and her mother,
Speaker 3: the father was away, so they went to go stay
Speaker 3: with her cousin and there Frances could play with her
Speaker 3: sixteen year old cousin, Elsie. Right the two girls, even
Speaker 3: though they had this big age gap, they became really
Speaker 3: close played together often fast friends. You know. They enjoyed
Speaker 3: playing behind the family garden down by the water. And
Speaker 3: after a few times of coming back at dinnertime all
Speaker 3: dirty or wet, the parents asked, like, why do you
Speaker 3: keep going down there? And they replied because they were
Speaker 3: playing with fairies. Okay, so the parents tease the kids
Speaker 3: about the answer.
Speaker 4: I'll say nowadays, when you say that, you gotta be careful.
Speaker 3: Let's take a drive to the hospital. But they kept
Speaker 3: going down by the water. One day, sixteen year old
Speaker 3: Elsie asked her father if she could use his Midge
Speaker 3: quarter plate camera to take some photos down there. He
Speaker 3: said sure, and the girls went out for an hour
Speaker 3: or so. When they returned to the house, Elsie with
Speaker 3: photos ready to be developed, and her father went into
Speaker 3: the dark room with the Because they didn't have one
Speaker 3: hour photo back then, you know, you had to go
Speaker 3: into an actual dark room and develop it.
Speaker 2: Well, the folk just has a dark room chilling in
Speaker 2: their house.
Speaker 3: Well nineteen what was I say? Nineteen seventeen?
Speaker 2: Still not everybody's got a dark room?
Speaker 3: Not everyone. But if you have a camera, it's useless
Speaker 3: unless you make a dark room. And you can make
Speaker 3: a dark room in a closet you don't have. It's
Speaker 3: not like a big thing. It's just a place so
Speaker 3: it can stay dark enough so the photos can develop. Okay,
Speaker 3: and then her father emerged with a developed photo.
Speaker 2: Wait, who's father?
Speaker 3: Because I thought the father was away Elsie's father. That's
Speaker 3: the sixteen year old where uncle? Yeah, okay, hold on,
Speaker 3: let me show you the first photo. So he emerged
Speaker 3: with a photo. The photo is of Francis surrounded of
Speaker 3: what looks like four dance and winged fairies. This is
Speaker 3: the younger cousin that went to go stay with her.
Speaker 3: They look like Barbie the fairies. Do they look like dolls?
Speaker 3: They don't look real. You are just a negative Nancy today.
Speaker 2: Well, they do.
Speaker 4: Look at them, they just look like hold on, let
Speaker 4: me zoom in. No, they still look like figurines.
Speaker 3: But a month later, the girls got another picture. This
Speaker 3: time instead of it being Francis, this is a picture
Speaker 3: of Elsie with a winged I now put these photos
Speaker 3: on social media. I can probably link one to the episode,
Speaker 3: but the other ones I'll put in social media if
Speaker 3: anyone wants to check them out, or you can just
Speaker 3: look up the coddingly fairy photos. But this was a
Speaker 3: picture of Elsie with a winged gnome looking creature.
Speaker 4: That one doesn't look as much like a doll. It
Speaker 4: does look creepy as hell, though. Look at its face.
Speaker 4: Zoom in and look at its face.
Speaker 2: It looks evil.
Speaker 3: Elsie's father, like Natasha, didn't believe the photos were real,
Speaker 3: but Elsie's mother was like, oh wow, that's amazing. You
Speaker 3: got pictures of fairies.
Speaker 4: Kudos, mom, wait to support your child even though they're
Speaker 4: cuckooper cocoa buffs.
Speaker 3: In nineteen nineteen, about two years after the first photo
Speaker 3: was taken, Elsie's mother was at a Theological Society meeting
Speaker 3: in Bradford where they were lecturing on fairy life. After
Speaker 3: the meeting, Elsie's mother Polly showed the first two pictures
Speaker 3: the girls had taken to others at the meeting, and
Speaker 3: word eventually made its way to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Speaker 3: most know him as the author of a little series
Speaker 3: Sherlock Holmes. Yes, he was also a spiritualist and interested
Speaker 3: in the paranormal, deeply interested. At the time, he was
Speaker 3: starting an article about fairies for the Strand magazine and
Speaker 3: he was already interested in fairies, and after Sir Arthur
Speaker 3: Conan Doyle found the photographs to be legit, he was convinced.
Speaker 3: In nineteen twenty, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle went on to
Speaker 3: publish an article about the fairy photos, and he also
Speaker 3: published the photos along with it in nineteen twenty in
Speaker 3: the Strand Magazine's Christmas edition. The article and pictures that
Speaker 3: were published were looked at in awe by some, while
Speaker 3: others were skeptical, like Natasha, you know what, there's.
Speaker 4: A perfectly good reason why I'm skeptical about this first photo.
Speaker 4: All right, go to the first photo. All right, we're
Speaker 4: gonna zoom in, zoom in on the ferry all the
Speaker 4: way to the left.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: And if that bitch is at that angle. For starters,
Speaker 4: her leg is backwards almost, and the way that she's
Speaker 4: sitting her dress.
Speaker 2: Should be aimed downward and not to the right.
Speaker 3: Well, she looks like she's dancing almost.
Speaker 2: But still the flow of the dress is not making
Speaker 2: sense on most of these fairies.
Speaker 3: The math ape mathin And then if.
Speaker 4: You look at the one all the way to the right,
Speaker 4: what is up with her back leg that looks almost
Speaker 4: like her her dress flapping back, but there's no foot
Speaker 4: on either stick on the backside.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the foot on her left foot is
Speaker 3: covered by leaves, is what it looks like to me.
Speaker 3: It just looks weird, skeptical Sally today.
Speaker 2: It just in.
Speaker 4: The whites don't match the whites, and the hair's not
Speaker 4: flowing right.
Speaker 2: Okay, anyway, I'm just gonna quit looking at the photo.
Speaker 3: So the article and pictures were published and they were
Speaker 3: looked at in awe by some and others were skeptical.
Speaker 3: But even the skeptics couldn't figure out if it was faked.
Speaker 3: How did they fake the photos? So Sir Arthur Conan
Speaker 3: Doyle got the girls a new camera to try to
Speaker 3: capture more of these enchanting creatures in photos. There was
Speaker 3: a total of five pictures. I'm gonna send you the
Speaker 3: next one.
Speaker 2: All let's see we got here, let's see here hair.
Speaker 3: I'll just send you the other three right away, so
Speaker 3: you'll get the last three other ones.
Speaker 4: So why is the fairy so clear and everything else
Speaker 4: in the like in her face is so fuzzy.
Speaker 3: Natasha, I was not there. I did not take these photographs, okay.
Speaker 4: The most realistic one is the last one you sent me,
Speaker 4: the fairy mount.
Speaker 3: Yes, the next photo that I sent you was there
Speaker 3: was one in nineteen twenty. That's the one where Frances
Speaker 3: is shown side profile looking at a jumping fairy. That's
Speaker 3: the third one I sent you. And the fourth one
Speaker 3: is Elsie and she again is almost side profile, but
Speaker 3: looking at a fairy that's holding something out to her,
Speaker 3: almost like she's gonna give her something looks like a
Speaker 3: piece of cake, just offering her a snack.
Speaker 2: Looks like a tiny piece of cake. And then never
Speaker 2: take food from a fairy.
Speaker 3: Don't do it.
Speaker 4: If you're in fairyland, do not eat or drink anything, okay.
Speaker 3: And the last photo is from nineteen twenty, and that's
Speaker 3: just of the fairies. No girls in the picture. And
Speaker 3: the fairies are like in twigs. It's almost like a
Speaker 3: little fairy mound type thing.
Speaker 2: That one looks the most legit to me.
Speaker 3: And people were still skeptical. The girls was scrutinized, but
Speaker 3: never wavered that these pictures were of magical creatures. Now
Speaker 3: we're gonna jump forward decades to nineteen eighty two, Okay,
Speaker 3: like this is decades and decades later. Leeds University had
Speaker 3: the original cam and they managed to find the original
Speaker 3: negatives and Jeffrey Crowley, an editor of the British Journal
Speaker 3: of Photography, went on this major investigation of the photographs
Speaker 3: and the events surrounding them. After he undertook this major undertaking,
Speaker 3: he excited that the original negatives had been altered or doctored.
Speaker 3: The girls were confronted and they admitted that yes they
Speaker 3: had fake the photos, ah, but that they really had
Speaker 3: seen fairies. Adults were teasing them and they wanted them
Speaker 3: to stop. So they concocted this to prove the adults wrong.
Speaker 3: And Elsie, who was very artistic, had experienced in a
Speaker 3: you know, in a photo studio with photographs at a
Speaker 3: time where the general public's knowledge of photographic manipulation was
Speaker 3: limited at best, if any, because I mean not everyone
Speaker 3: had a camera. Yeah. What Elsie did was she traced
Speaker 3: I'm going to send you one more photo. She traced
Speaker 3: some girls from the book Boom Princess Mary's gift book,
Speaker 3: and once they were traced, she drew them on cardboard cutouts,
Speaker 3: and then she added some wings to the pictures and
Speaker 3: stood the cutouts up with hat pins at the base,
Speaker 3: and them being cutouts and being held up with a pin.
Speaker 3: It appeared as if the fairies were moving in the photos,
Speaker 3: so it added to it because they were blowing a
Speaker 3: little bit in the wind. The photos took off and
Speaker 3: their story Artha Conan Doyle believed it. So the girls
Speaker 3: were too embarrassed to admit what they'd done, and they
Speaker 3: didn't want to embarrass Sir Artha Conan Doyle, who defended
Speaker 3: publicly these photos for decades. But Francis claims that the
Speaker 3: fifth photograph of the fairies and there they called it
Speaker 3: their Sunbath, was genuine. She said, quote, it was a
Speaker 3: wet Saturday afternoon and we were just mooching about with
Speaker 3: our cameras and Elsie had nothing prepared. I saw these
Speaker 3: fairies building up in the grasses and just aimed the
Speaker 3: camera and took a photograph.
Speaker 2: Wait, the one that I said looks the most legit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she said that that was real. Okay, but some
Speaker 3: say they were all crap. Some say, but the girls
Speaker 3: did say that, say that they actually did see fairies.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I could have told you that I saw
Speaker 4: fairies when I was a kid. I used to try
Speaker 4: to catch him. Me and my friend made fairy trasps.
Speaker 4: We were trying to catch fairies.
Speaker 3: Aw, that's so cute.
Speaker 4: I could have been like, yeah, I totally saw one,
Speaker 4: but I didn't because I wasn't a liar.
Speaker 3: It's called imagination. But I mean, it is funny how
Speaker 3: the public's opinion can be swayed so.
Speaker 2: Easily.
Speaker 3: Because Arthur Conan Doyle, like prominent person, was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's real, so everyone was like, you know, he believed it,
Speaker 3: so it has to be real. It was on TV,
Speaker 3: Yeah it has to be real.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's on TV. It's gotta be real.
Speaker 3: But a lot of people say that maybe because of
Speaker 3: the wartime stress, they were looking for some kind of
Speaker 3: magical escape, like how we stare at Hulu Netflix. Maybe
Speaker 3: back then the Fairy was their streaming service to get
Speaker 3: your mind off of how junky the world is, you know,
Speaker 3: Or it could have been the time. The spiritualism was
Speaker 3: huge back then, so that could get it. We're more
Speaker 3: likely to jump on board Francis died in nineteen eighty
Speaker 3: six in Elsie. In nineteen eighty eight. Some of their
Speaker 3: prints and a first edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's writing
Speaker 3: about the Fairies sold for over twenty one thousand pounds
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2: Damn.
Speaker 3: The pictures and cameras that the girls used are at
Speaker 3: the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, England. Watercolors
Speaker 3: painted by Elsie of fairies and a letter from Elsie
Speaker 3: admitting to faking the pictures are also there. I mean,
Speaker 3: even if it's real or fake, it's so impressive that
Speaker 3: girls back then, like young girls, at a time where
Speaker 3: girls were worth like nothing in the world. Yeah, could
Speaker 3: pull this off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: And the fact, I mean, yeah, they got a lot
Speaker 4: of grief for it, but so many people that supported
Speaker 4: them after, you know, of course the man decided that
Speaker 4: it was true, then they all jumped on board, just
Speaker 4: like I'm gonna throw that out there.
Speaker 2: A man agreed and then it was okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But that's I love how they were like, yep, this
Speaker 3: is what we're doing, and they did it and they
Speaker 3: just sold it.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: Hashtag women power.
Speaker 2: Yeah, girl power, Flower Power.
Speaker 3: So what do you think, do you think they saw
Speaker 3: any fairies at all? Or do you think the whole
Speaker 3: thing was.
Speaker 2: Just honestly, they probably faked all of it. That one.
Speaker 4: It was just the way that the photo sits, it
Speaker 4: looks more legitimate. But I'd have to sit there and
Speaker 4: like stare at it and like dive into it to
Speaker 4: see if, like, how you know, bullshit I think it is.
Speaker 4: But overall, I'd say it was probably their imagination. And
Speaker 4: like you said, they were too afraid to come out
Speaker 4: and say what they did because everybody was on board
Speaker 4: by then. It was kind of like the Fox Sisters
Speaker 4: love a good scheme. Yeah, I do not like schemes
Speaker 4: because the scheming just degrades the authenticity of every other
Speaker 4: person who might actually see something.
Speaker 3: I get that part. It's more just about women having
Speaker 3: a voice at a time that they didn't. It's not
Speaker 3: about like.
Speaker 4: Well, it'd be nice if they had a voice that
Speaker 4: was honest, because it maybe more people would listen to us.
Speaker 3: I get your point. I just like the girls do
Speaker 3: make make big moves at a time where they weren't
Speaker 3: supposed to.
Speaker 4: They're airheaded and fanciful. Well guess what this is because
Speaker 4: the ones that did were No. Wonder why we all
Speaker 4: have a bad rap?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 4: Do I believe that the Faye is real? Yes, these
Speaker 4: particular ones no.
Speaker 3: But who's to say. The last one it.
Speaker 2: Just I don't know.
Speaker 4: There's just something about it that still is like, eh,
Speaker 4: they very well could have.
Speaker 2: It just looks more three dimensional than the other ones did.
Speaker 3: And I know they actually sent these photos when they
Speaker 3: were investigating to Kodak, and Kodak was like, well, we
Speaker 3: can't prove that they're that they're fake. So they tried,
Speaker 3: but they couldn't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the hand does look a little funky on that
Speaker 4: last one, the last with the girls, and I'm kind
Speaker 4: of like in the grass, it's like, got this the
Speaker 4: blades of grass and stuff that's underneath it. I don't know,
Speaker 4: I just feel like it looks at least more legitimate.
Speaker 4: Still not like ooh wow, that's amazing, but at least
Speaker 4: at least better than the other ones.
Speaker 2: They stepped up their game on that photo.
Speaker 3: During wartime, I would have been all in. I would
Speaker 3: have been like buying the magazine. I'd be buying the
Speaker 3: National Inquirers.
Speaker 2: You buy those magazine?
Speaker 4: What is the where they talk about on men in Black,
Speaker 4: and they like get those like bullshit magazines and they're like,
Speaker 4: this is where all the real news is.
Speaker 3: I would I never bought them. When I was waiting
Speaker 3: in line at the grocery store, I'd always pick up
Speaker 3: the National Inquirer and read a few pages. Oh geez,
Speaker 3: you don't want to know who Elvis has a baby with.
Speaker 4: No, No, it's probably a lizard woman at Area fifty
Speaker 4: one's their home.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm this year. I'm telling you conspiracy all the
Speaker 3: way I wasn't before. Now the conspiracies are all real,
Speaker 3: they're proven, they're no longer conspiracy. So what the hell's
Speaker 3: happened to this world?
Speaker 4: I will be bringing some to creep it weird then, Yes,
Speaker 4: I hope. So I've got a whole shlew of them.
Speaker 3: I can't wait. Yeah, that's all I got. I don't
Speaker 3: fully believe, but I don't fully think that they didn't either.
Speaker 4: I like to see you like the forest area like
Speaker 4: a lot of for me, is the vibe, like what
Speaker 4: kind of vibe is it putting off? Because there's some
Speaker 4: places that are very mystical. Just walking in you can
Speaker 4: it's you can feel it.
Speaker 3: It's called a what do you call it's not a
Speaker 3: like no, hold on, let me look up the word
Speaker 3: for it. I'm just gonna show you. This is where
Speaker 3: it's beautiful, where they saw said they saw the fairies,
Speaker 3: which does look magical. Oh it's a beck, that's what
Speaker 3: it's called. A beck, A beck of water, like a
Speaker 3: stream of water. But it's a beck.
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah that minus the weird house in the back.
Speaker 3: Yes, does that look magical? It does look pretty magical.
Speaker 2: I'll give you that.
Speaker 4: Like I said, minus the house in the back ground,
Speaker 4: I feel like fairies would not be that close to
Speaker 4: a building.
Speaker 3: Maybe stopping through quick little bath in the beck.
Speaker 2: It looks like it could be a good little shower
Speaker 2: for them.
Speaker 4: Yeah, faye, Yes, these ones in particular, I'm gonna say no.
Speaker 3: All right, I'm on the fence again as in everything
Speaker 3: as if you listen to our creep it weird episode
Speaker 3: we've recorded today on the fence. On that one too,
Speaker 3: I'm just teetering.
Speaker 2: Don't mind me, not me this one. I'm putting both feet.
Speaker 2: Both feet are planned on this one.
Speaker 3: Crap for Natasha, yep, but yeah, no, thank you so
Speaker 3: much for coming over. And if everybody enjoys Natasha like
Speaker 3: I do. Oh, check us out over on creep It Weird,
Speaker 3: where we have a bunch of new episodes. Well, we
Speaker 3: have one coming out every week, so if you wanna, yeah.
Speaker 2: Go check it out. We got all kinds, we got
Speaker 2: all the stuff and things.
Speaker 3: All the stuff, do all the things for creep it Weird.
Speaker 2: So yep, all the things and do all the things
Speaker 2: for out you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, Well, thank you everybody so much for listening,
Speaker 3: and thank you Natasha for coming on. Well, thanks for
Speaker 3: having me until next time, Bye bye.
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