Two modern fairy sightings from one of the most fairy-haunted counties in the UK
By Richrad Holland via Janet Bord
I decided to flick through Janet Bord’s excellent Travellers Guide to Fairy Sites (Gothic Image, 2004) to see if it would give me a clue as to which county in England was the most fairy-haunted. I decided to leave out Wales, Scotland and Ireland, making the assumption that these ‘Celtic heartlands’ would have more than their fair share, anyway. I was a little embarrassed to discover that a quick glance immediately suggested that Cornwall won the accolade. Well, of course it did. And then Somerset, and then Devon (very broadly speaking, of course).
But one other county did stand out: Yorkshire. Yorkshire is, of course, a very large county, long since split into smaller divisions. Nevertheless, the number of fairy haunts seems out of proportion (even if you ignore Cottingley). Along with many legends, Janet quotes two intriguing cases of modern fairy sightings from Yorkshire.
One of these centres on the Stocksbridge bypass when it was under construction in 1987. ‘Numerous ghosts were being seen at Pearoyd Bridge,’ writes Janet, ‘and ne night two security guards in a Landrover saw a group of what appeared to be children playing around a pylon near the new road – just after midnight. `they stopped and walked back to investigate, but there was no one to be seen, and the fresh mud round the pylon showed no sign of footprints.
‘Another witness reported that during the construction work they would hear “kids singing on freezing cold nights and it was very frightening. It started about 11 o’clock and continued to about two in the morning, almost like a small choir of about 10 or 12 kids. You couldn’t tell what it was they were singing, but it was really spooky, and you always had a strange feeling that someone was watching you.” ’
And if fairies dancing round a pylon seems bizarre, then what about fairies teeing off on a golf course? On an evening in May 1994 J Bardet saw five or six figures, adults but about 4ft tall, apparently putting a ball around on Pike Hills Golf Course. They were about 50 yards away. When they noticed they were being observed, one of the struck a ball hard in the direction of the witness, who ducked behind a tree. In the few seconds they were obscured from view the little golfers had vanished – and a search revealed no sign of them.
I suppose considering that the fairies of old performed activities similar to their human cousins – hunting, feasting etc – it should be no surprise to learn that they have now taken up golf.
The above story reminds me of an experience a chap in North Wales told me about some years ago. He had been returning early one morning from an all-night party in the hills above Llangollen. Feeling rather light-headed and bleary, he simply didn’t believe his eyes when he saw what appeared to be gnomes sporting about in the grounds of Plas Newydd (former home of the Ladies of Llangollen). These ‘hallucinations’ stubbornly refused to disappear as he approached Plas Newydd, and he began to feel nervous. Was he losing his mind or had he entered some sort of weird dimension?
Neither. The BBC was filming an episode of Narnia there, and the ‘gnomes’ were little extras in costume, romping around waiting for their cue.
