The Cave Lore of Mother Shipton

Ursula Southeil, better known as Mother Shipton (c. 1488–1561), is said to have been an English soothsayer and prophetess. Mother Shipton was said to be a hideously ugly witch and an oracle, predicting doomsday horrors and disasters that were to befall the Tudor reign, with each morbid forecast recited in prose. Allegedly born as Ursula Southhell in a cave in the forests of Knaresborough, now known as Mother Shipton's Cave, she was associated with all kinds of tragic events and dark doings in the area, including the bewitchment of a nearby well, now called the Petrifying Well, that turned objects into stone.

Who Mother Shipton was or what exactly she said is not definitively known. What is certain is that her name became linked with many tragic events and strange goings on recorded all over the UK, Australia and North America throughout the 17/18/19th centuries. Many pubs were named after her. Only two survive, one near her birthplace in Knaresborough (now renamed the Dropping Well) and the other in Portsmouth where there is a statue of her above the door. There is a moth, Callistege mi, named after her. It seemingly bears a profile of a hag's head on each wing.

SOURCES
en.wikipedia.org
www.yorkshire.com
www.atlasobscura.com
Image1: wikimedia.org

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