A fairy tale story that fooled many

YOUR WEEKLY ROUND-UP OF THE REGION'S LEADING AUCTIONEERS

- 

The photographs that entranced the world a century ago, appearing to prove the existence of fairies, are to go under the hammer next week after turning up in North East Lincolnshire.

The photographs in the auction were originally owned by Frances Griffiths, the nine-year-old schoolgirl who appears in the pictures with the fairies.

James Laverack, of auctioneers John Taylors, said: “In 1917, sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright took two photographs of her cousin Frances Griffiths with the fairies that they said lived around the beck at the bottom of their garden in the village of Cottingley in West Yorkshire.

“When news about the photographs began to spread experts were asked to examine the glass plate negatives. They said there was no evidence of tampering with the negatives.