Richard Jenkins- Mother Shipton & her Cave: From Prophecy to Pantomime to Visitor Attraction

Mother Shipton and her Cave: From Prophecy to Pantomime to Visitor Attraction

The visitor to Knaresborough today will, as like as not, find themselves strolling on the banks of the River Nidd, visiting Mother Shipton's Cave. It is every inch the modern attraction, and, indeed, well worth a visit. There they will read about Ursula Shipton, born Ursual Sontheil in 1488 in the cave that is still there today. She was - and is - the most celebrated of English soothsayers, famous for predicting the fates of monarchs, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Great Fire of London, and the coming of iron ships. Ursula, who was apparently also a traditional healer, died in 1561.

But was she real, and is the story true? All will be revealed in this talk that follows her fortunes in the pages of Civil War era chapbooks, 18th and 19th century pantomimes and…