Our Forum…

While we know that the case of the Cottingley Faeries is an admitted hoax-   There may be some truth to the fact that Frances- one of the girls,  did have a Faery encounter  in that area before the whole mascarade began.      Below is an excerpt of  Frances' account she wrote 36 years after the hoax.       Something made her keep going down to this creek after that- and then,  of course, Elsie got involved, and then they had to explain things to others, which ended in alot of dramatic dishonesty in the end that ruined the credibility of her original encounter forever.

http://www.cottingleyconnect.o……htm#areas

First Sighting
Elsie was working at that time because I was up the beck alone quite a lot after school. It was good to sit quietly on the willow branch and listen to the sound of the water, the odd bee buzzing and an occasional splash as a frog plunged into a deep pool.
I suppose I must have been day dreaming one day when I looked across the beck and saw a willow leaf twirling around rapidly, moving as it were, on its own. I did think it odd, as there was no breeze. I had never seen a leaf do that before, but then everything here was new to me and I thought no more about it at the time.
That was the beginning, although at the time I didn’t realise it. The leaf was being held by a little man. The first time I saw the little man – he was about eighteen inches high – he was walking purposefully down the bank on the willow side of the beck, holding a willow leaf in his hand, twiddling it very fast as he crossed the water to the other side. I wasn’t unduly surprised – the beck was a wonderful place and I wouldn’t have been surprised at anything that happened there.
I am writing sixty-six years after the leaf incident and I cannot remember how long after this that I saw the real reason the leaf behaved in such a strange manner.
It was early summer and the weather was still fine as I sat on the overhanging willow branch, feet dangling in the water, and saw a little man walking with high steps towards me. As he reached the first branch of the willow he lifted his hand and, although I saw him do it many times afterwards, a leaf just came into his hand. A stem or a leaf of a tree is usually tough and needs a good tug to pull it off, but he seemed to just reach up and pick a leaf as easily as you or I would pick a bluebell. He held the leaf in his hand and twirled it round just as before, walking down to the beck and crossing it. Now to me, this did seem odd!
With all my experience of boats made of tree bark or rotten wood, I knew instinctively that if he had weight he would go down with the current, but he just strolled across the beck and then gave a little hop onto the bank at the other side. At the time I thought nothing about it, but later I did wonder about his feet seeming to walk on water, but didn’t know what to make of it.
He had a rugged face, similar I would think to the faces of the railway carters who delivered goods on wagons driven by those lovely old Shire horses. He wasn’t ugly, but neither did he have a friendly face. He just looked as if he was going about a job of work.
Once I saw him leading three or four little men who were dressed as he was, in a green jerkin and darker-coloured green loose-fitting tights – rather like our young people wear their Levis today! They all walked very purposefully and when they had crossed the beck they turned towards the right. I watched them until they went behind a clump of willow herb and were lost from sight.
I didn’t tell Elsie for a long time. This was my secret – mine alone – and I didn’t want to share it. Elsie had never mentioned seeing the little men when they came whilst she was there. They must have known we were there, because the first time I saw the little man on his own, he gave me a good hard stare before going on his way. Never again did any of them indicate that they could see us – but I was aware that they could. ©

http://www.cottingleyconnect.o…..airies.htm

Below is mentioned a similar encounter in modern times of the same type of small Elven Being the one sister originally saw decades earlier:

"…In the 1980's a former wrestler (Ronnie Bennett) and then forester in Cottingley Woods, admitted to having seen fairies in the woods. He claimed he saw the elf-like figures while working in the Cottingley Estate Woods. "When they showed themselves about nine years ago there was a slight drizzle around. I saw three fairies in the woods and I have never seen them since. They were just about ten inches tall and just stared at me. There is no way the Cottingley Fairies is a hoax."

It may have been a hoax- but I believe it didnt start out as a hoax-    The girls' enthusiasm and fun-loving antics with paper cutouts was an inside joke at skeptics in thier families and school which ended up getting more attention than they bargained for.  They were trapped and had to keep up appearances after that.     Nevertheless, Frances did originally see something. The only thing is , the Faery will not pose for photographs at a human's whim ,  so this is where they took matters into thier own hands and the mascarade began.

Bluefirephoenix said:

and then you have the camera hams just showing enough to tantilze and let us know theyre there.

LOL! so true!   and I think many of the faery caught on film may not have even been aware they were being photographed either.     With all of the photo's I've seen,  their energy –which shows up as light – appears as glowing flying shapes on the photo.    I think you're right though–  many of them probably just love to show off a bit ;-)

You're welcome!

I recalled reading how that former wrestler saw some elven beings standng in the woods looking at him over a year ago, so I'm glad I found the same testimony on that website.     

From what I also read…   Frances eventually told Elsie about her encounter-  and then one thing led to another with Elsie inspiring them both to do something to prove to the naysayers that Francine wasn't lying.     Of course, at the time, it hadnt crossed their minds that making up things to "prove" their existance after an original  real encounter wasnt exactly the way to go about it.