Fairies, Folklore and Forteana

SIMON YOUNG FILES A NEW REPORT FROM THE INTERFACE OF STRANGE PHENOMENA AND FOLK BELIEF

WELL, I NEVER...

The year is about 1820 and William Butterfield is walking up, in the pre-dawn, to his work at Ilkley. He owns the White Wells, the springs on the edge of the moorland, which are believed to have healing qualities. Ilkley folk and, increasingly, health tourists are arriving to try their luck in the freezing cold waters that run off the sodden heather.

Cresting the hill, Butterworth has what forteans sometimes call an ‘oz’ moment. The bird song sounds unusually ‘sweet’. Shrugging the impression off, he puts his key in the lock at the walled open bath – but the lock does not work. Even after getting the lock to turn, it is a struggle to get the door open: it is almost as if something is pushing against him.

And what does he see when the door finally gives way?

“All over the well, skimming on its surface like water-spiders, or dipping into it as if they were taking a bath, was a swarm of little people, the biggest of them not above 18 inches [46cm] high; yet they seemed perfect human beings. They bathed with all their clothes on; and Butterfield noticed that they were dressed from head to foot in green.” The fairies took one look at Butterfield and chased off, running up and over an eight-foot (2.4m) wall.

Butterfield’s encounter is a fortean classic, though perhaps we should not be too trusting. After all, it was written down by two separate authors who were telling us of the events of that day, at third-hand, 50 years after Butterworth had his brush with the impossible.

However, fairy springs and fairy wells remain, through the centuries, some of the best places to see fairies, at least in Britain. Most fairy sites in England, Scotland and Wales are found far from human habitation: there is the pastoral human sphere and the wild fairy realms. Fairy wells are different. They are often on the very edge of villages, as if they constitute a shared resource, a meeting place between the human world and the world of fairy beyond. This may have been the case at Ilkley too. Not only did the well have healing qualities, but the band of moorland beyond had several fairy sites, including the Fairies’ Kirk (or church), a rocky outcrop where we must assume the fairies prayed to their fairy god(s).

Then there is another reason that Butterfield should not have been surprised to see his fairy neighbours. His adventures took place on 24 June, just as the Sun was rising, the end of the most fairy time of the year, Midsummer Night.

Simon’s latest book is The Boggart (Exeter University Press, 2022).

ALL OVER THE WELL WAS A SWARM OF LITTLE PEOPLE, THE BIGGEST OF THEM NOT ABOVE 18 INCHES HIGH