Knaresborough

I was inspired to revisit Mother Shipton’s Cave in Knaresborough through re-reading my diary about places I had been to. It’s full of magic and mystery in the woods.

I first visited with my parents in the 70s when I was about six years old. The story goes that in 1488 a 15-year-old girl, allegedly a prostitute, gave birth to a baby girl Ursula Sontheil and for the first two years of the baby’s life, they lived in a cave, before the mother was taken in by a convent and Ursula was adopted by a local family. Ursula, who later became known as Mother Shipton after marrying a local carpenter, had psychic powers and was in those days called a Prophetess or a witch as she foretold many historic battles, great fires and inventions.

Next to the cave is a petrifying well, where objects are hung around the top of the waterfall and the water passes through the objects, turning them into stone over a period of time. I purchased a teddy bear which had been petrified on the last occasion that I visited around 20 years ago. I asked if any other objects were for sale, as there were two dolls hanging up, one had its arms outstretched like a religious icon and the other looked like it had been caught on a windy day. Unfortunately, nothing was for sale and the teddies had all sold out, so I was glad I had got one years ago as they only seem to sell really tiny teddies now. Some objects had been petrified which were donated by famous people or celebrities ranging from John Wayne and his hat to a handbag from Agatha Christie, a shoe by Queen Mary and at the other end of the scale, something from Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee.

I photographed the waterfall from several different angles, but mostly from a corner which was set back a little, allowing for my tripod without any health and safety concerns of people tripping over it. There were several tourists passing through although I managed to avoid them out of the frame on most occasions. I had pre-planned to add some motion blur to the water and therefore took my tripod so that I could get a slow enough shutter speed to capture the falling water effectively, whilst still having the objects pin sharp. When reviewing the shots, I was actually quite pleased with some of them and felt it added a sense of the movement overall, whilst also capturing the process of the water running over the ephemera. My original photos taking years ago were not as strong, due to the camera being hand-held at the time and only freezing the moment.  

I visited the wishing well, having made two visits to the well on previous occasions and both wishes have since come true. I figured that if we only get three wishes granted in life, I had better make this a good one. I had been reading about wishes in a book Zona (Dyer, 2012, p.182) whereby he has critically analysed the film Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979) which he says has haunted him all his life. The premise of the film is that the main characters have to go on a journey to a room for the reason of making a wish, however, it transpires that only their innermost wish will be granted. I decided not to photograph the well as it was too difficult with the tourists wanting to make wishes. It was also quite a small a slippery area (the girl in front of me fell over) and a challenge for e tripod, especially with regards to health and safety if someone tripped over the leg of it.

Having spent almost four hours in the vicinity of Knaresborough, I got rather fixated by an angel which had been carved out of a beech tree which had apparently ‘died of old age’. I used the infrared filter on this one, as the sun coming through the beech tree was just right and the symbolism of creating something new - a sculpture of an angel - out of something which had died, seemed quite fitting for the story I am writing, in the sense of creating a new perspective on a mystery which may have been long forgotten and keeping her story alive.