There are thriving communities of fairies, magical creatures and spirit beings throughout the moors
Tabitha Aykroyd - The Brontës housekeeper and nanny
Tabby had the ear of the Bronte children for many years and told them tales of local folklore and the supernatural. One of the more well known stories is about how the fairies used to live amongst the village and townsfolk when we were all a lot more in touch with nature and symbiotically living with her.
With the advent of industrialisation and the coming of mills and factories, the fairies began to distance themselves. We were becoming a new species of animal focused on taking from mother nature and not redressing the balance and the fairies were unable to live with us anymore. They moved back into the countryside with little communities spread across the moors where they can still be found today, if you are lucky or patient or they trust you.
The Gytrash is a monstrous black dog that roams the moors searching for travellers and the lost. It is a shapeshiftter and can appear in the form of a dog, bird or occasionally a horse. Like the creatures in a Hayao Miyazaki cartoon, the Gytrash can be both dangerous and benevolent, leading people to their doom or guiding lost travellers to safety. In some cases this can depend on the temperament, thoughts or motivations of those who meet it.
The Gytrash and the Brontes
"As this horse approached, and as I watched for it to appear through the dusk, I remembered certain of Bessie's tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit called a "Gytrash," which, in the form of horse, mule, or large dog, haunted solitary ways, and sometimes came upon belated travellers, as this horse was now coming upon me. It was very near, but not yet in sight; when, in addition to the tramp, tramp, I heard a rush under the hedge, and close down by the hazel stems glided a great dog, whose black and white colour made him a distinct object against the trees. It was exactly one form of Bessie's Gytrash, a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head, with strange pretercanine eyes. The horse followed, a tall steed. Nothing ever rode the Gytrash: it was always alone."
Excerpt from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The Gytrash turns out to be Rochester's dog Pilot and Bessie can be seen as a version of Tabby Akroyd.
Branwell also wrote about the gytyrash taking the form of - ‘an old dwarfish and hideous man, as often seen without a head as with one’. Originally called ‘Heatons at Ponden’ the story was later renamed ‘Thurstons of Darkwall’. Despite the tales of the Brontes friendship with the Heatons, there was actually quite some animosity between them.
The Gytrash and the Brontes
"As this horse approached, and as I watched for it to appear through the dusk, I remembered certain of Bessie's tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit called a "Gytrash," which, in the form of horse, mule, or large dog, haunted solitary ways, and sometimes came upon belated travellers, as this horse was now coming upon me. It was very near, but not yet in sight; when, in addition to the tramp, tramp, I heard a rush under the hedge, and close down by the hazel stems glided a great dog, whose black and white colour made him a distinct object against the trees. It was exactly one form of Bessie's Gytrash, a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head, with strange pretercanine eyes. The horse followed, a tall steed. Nothing ever rode the Gytrash: it was always alone."
Excerpt from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The Gytrash turns out to be Rochester's dog Pilot and Bessie can be seen as a version of Tabby Akroyd.
Branwell also wrote about the gytyrash taking the form of - ‘an old dwarfish and hideous man, as often seen without a head as with one’. Originally called ‘Heatons at Ponden’ the story was later renamed ‘Thurstons of Darkwall’. Despite the tales of the Brontes friendship with the Heatons, there was actually quite some animosity between them.
Rombald and Catherine, the giants of the moorThought to be the inspiration for Heathcliff and Cathy from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Rombald and his consort St Catherine are the local giants of the moor. Originally representing Belenus, the Celtic sun god associated with the ancient fire festival sabbat beltane and Belisama , goddess of lakes, rivers, fire, crafts and light, their names were changed during the christianisation of the UK.
Known as a wild and feisty couple legends tell of their domestic arguments across the moors, boulder fields on the moors are said to be the remains of their fights. Most famous is the 'Great Skirt full of stones' at Burley moor. Also attributed to the giants are the Grub Stones also known as Rom's Law. This is believed to be a constructed stone circle dating back to at least the bronze age . |
The Fairy cave, Ponden Kirk
"Catherine told Hareton who she was, and where she was going; and asked him to show her the way: finally, beguiling him to accompany her. He opened the mysteries of the Fairy Cave, and twenty other queer places."
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte The fairy cave is a square hole that runs all the way throught the base of an outcrop of rock called Ponden Kirk (Kirk is old Norse for church or meeting place but our viking invaders also named outcrops this way too) Said to have been carved by fairies the cave has been used in pagan fertility rites and as a doorway to access other realms. Its inclusion in Wuthering Heights could be allegorical to suggest Cathy and Hareton had more than just a friendly liaison! |
Hobs
A hob is a small household spirit found in the north of England, the name is a shortened form of goblin although locally the name is also associated with the devil and old Nick. They are said to work in farmyards and around the house and are usually benevolent unless annoyed.
Hobs have been described as small, hairy, wizened men. In northern England the hob was viewed as a kind but mischievous spirit, helpful to local people in need of healing. A famous hob called the hobthrust lived near Runswick Bay in a hobhole, and was said to be able to cure whooping cough. Hob Hill and Hob lane in Stanbury near Haworth are famous for their Hobs. One is said to reside at the Old Silent Inn (the building at Hob lane on the map) and previous inn keepers have told stories of the sound of fairy bells attached to the Hobs horses as they return from working on the moors. |
Silver Hill
A little further along the road from Hob Hill is an unusual little mound called Silver Hill. Locally it is said to be where the fairies buried their treasure. Depictions of it exists on the earliest known maps dating from 1617 and known as 2 laws, a law being another name for a hill.
Originally there appears to have been 2 hills (in fact several similar mounds exist down the valley and where they have eroded away it can be seen that they are made from rough pieces of sandstone piled on top of one another) |
"By all accounts the second hill was dismantled for the stone and at the centre of the mound was found a treasure which was attributed to the fairies. It seems a curse also came with the treasure and on his return home the finder's horse tripped and broke its leg, the treasure fell to the ground where it turned to ash and bone. Subsequently the second hill was walled off and has been left well alone to this day."
(Whispers and Shadows - John Bradley) |
Cottingley fairies
Situated a couple a valleys over from Haworth is the village of Cottingley, home to one of the most famous fairy encounters in the country.
From Historic-UK.com
“There are fairies at the bottom of our garden,” announces the opening line of a poem by Rose Fyleman first published in 1917. Coincidentally, that was also the year that two intelligent and talented young conspirators managed to convince the world that there were fairies living near Cottingley Beck, the stream that ran past the foot of their garden.
The curious tale of the Cottingley Fairies began in the summer of that year, when nine-year-old Frances Griffiths and her mother returned to England from South Africa to stay with the Wright family in Cottingley, West Yorkshire. Next to the house where Polly and Arthur Wright and their sixteen-year-old daughter Elsie lived was the small wooded valley through which Cottingley Beck flowed. Elsie and Frances were cousins.
Cottingley Beck still flows picturesquely over rocky outcrops overshadowed by trees, just the type of pretty location that children love to explore. It quickly became the favourite spot of the two cousins, who regularly got into trouble for returning home wet and untidy after playing in and around the beck.
When told off for getting wet, they said they went there “to see the fairies”. Their families undoubtedly scoffed at an excuse that was as thin as “the dog ate my homework”, and so Elsie borrowed her father’s Midg quarterplate camera and went in search of proof. The girls were back within the hour.
Elsie’s father Arthur was a keen amateur photographer with his own darkroom and all the equipment required to develop the plate the girls had taken. The image, now a very famous one, shows Frances, head slightly tilted, gazing off just to the right of the photographer. In front of her several winged fairy figures dressed in diaphanous clothing are dancing."
From Historic-UK.com
“There are fairies at the bottom of our garden,” announces the opening line of a poem by Rose Fyleman first published in 1917. Coincidentally, that was also the year that two intelligent and talented young conspirators managed to convince the world that there were fairies living near Cottingley Beck, the stream that ran past the foot of their garden.
The curious tale of the Cottingley Fairies began in the summer of that year, when nine-year-old Frances Griffiths and her mother returned to England from South Africa to stay with the Wright family in Cottingley, West Yorkshire. Next to the house where Polly and Arthur Wright and their sixteen-year-old daughter Elsie lived was the small wooded valley through which Cottingley Beck flowed. Elsie and Frances were cousins.
Cottingley Beck still flows picturesquely over rocky outcrops overshadowed by trees, just the type of pretty location that children love to explore. It quickly became the favourite spot of the two cousins, who regularly got into trouble for returning home wet and untidy after playing in and around the beck.
When told off for getting wet, they said they went there “to see the fairies”. Their families undoubtedly scoffed at an excuse that was as thin as “the dog ate my homework”, and so Elsie borrowed her father’s Midg quarterplate camera and went in search of proof. The girls were back within the hour.
Elsie’s father Arthur was a keen amateur photographer with his own darkroom and all the equipment required to develop the plate the girls had taken. The image, now a very famous one, shows Frances, head slightly tilted, gazing off just to the right of the photographer. In front of her several winged fairy figures dressed in diaphanous clothing are dancing."
From - The Haunted Museum
In 1920, Conan Doyle received a letter from a Spiritualist friend, Felicia Scatcherd, who informed of some photographs which proved the existence of fairies in Yorkshire. Conan Doyle asked his friend Edward Gardner to go down and investigate and Gardner soon found himself in the possession of several photos which showed very small female figures with transparent wings. The photographers had been two young girls, Elsie Wright and her cousin, Frances Griffiths. They claimed they had seen the fairies on an earlier occasion and had gone back with a camera and photographed them. They had been taken in July and September 1917, near the Yorkshire village of Cottingley. The two cousins claimed to have seen the fairies around the "beck" (a local term for "stream") on an almost daily basis. At the time, they claimed to have no intention of seeking fame or notoriety. Elsie had borrowed her father's camera on a host Saturday in July 1917 to take pictures of Frances and the beck fairies. |